Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Matthew 13:17

"For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not." — Matthew 13:17 (ASV)

For “blessed,” see comment on 5:3. The disciples were blessed by God and privileged above the crowd because they saw and heard what “many prophets and righteous men” (v.17; 10:40–42) longed to see but did not. The reference is to OT prophets and others who were righteous before God—people who looked forward to the coming of the kingdom. Here one cannot help but include Simeon and Anna . Just as the crowd in Jesus’ day stands in the line of the willfully blind in the OT (vv.14–15), so Jesus’ disciples stand in the line of the prophets . The fulfillment motif is operating, showing that the division taking place with the coming of the kingdom stands in succession to the divisions already spelled out in the Scriptures.