Therefore. Seeing that the consequences of an angry spirit are so terrible. For there is no thought here of an unforgiving spirit spoiling the acceptance of the gift (vide infra). Our Lord is insisting that it is so important to lose no time in seeking reconciliation with a person whom one has injured, that even the very holiest action must be put off for it.
If thou bring; Revised Version, if …. thou art offering; ἐὰν … προσφέρῃς (similarly, πρόσηερε, Matthew 5:24), the technical word coming some sixty times in Leviticus alone. Christ implies that the action has already begun.
Thy gift; a general word for any sacrifice. To the altar. Since those to whom he spoke were still Jews, Christ illustrates his meaning by Jewish practices. A perverse literalism has found here a direct reference to the Eucharist.
For reasonable adaptations (cf. even in ' Didache,' § 14.) of these two verses to this, see Waterland, 'Doctrine of the Eucharist,' ch. 13. § 4. And there rememberest, etc. For the spirit of recollection may well culminate with the culminating action.
Lightfoot ('Hor. Hebr.') shows that even the Jews taught such a postponement of the sacrifice if theft was remembered. He therefore thinks that the stress is on "ought" ( τι): "For that which the Jews restrained only to pecuniary damages, Christ extends to all offences against our brother."
But he overlooks the fact that, while the Jewish precept had reference to a sin (or even the neglect of some ceremonial rule, of. Mishna, 'Pes.,' 3.7) vitiating the offering, there is no thought of this hero (vide supra).
Thy brother (verse 22, note). Ought. So from Tyndale downwards. Revised Version, aught, here and apparently always, after the spelling now preferred as marking the difference from the verb.