It is curious that in St. Luke's account of this speech of our Lord's he should omit our verses 12-14 (on verse 15, see note there), thus leaving out all Christ's plainer and more direct teaching about the relation of John to himself.
St. Luke places (Luke 16:16) our verses 12 and 13 in what appears to be merely a cento of sayings. Possibly the original occasion has been recorded by neither evangelist, but in Matthew the passage certainly brings out the thought upon which our Lord was insisting on this occasion.
And. Slightly adversative ( δέ), for there is a change of subject. Christ urges his hearers to more definitely range themselves under his banner. From the days of John the Baptist until now. Yet this was not more than a few months!
Possibly the sentence had become modified in oral teaching, so as to include many years, say up to a.d. 50 or 60. St. Luke's ἀπὸ τότε is easy enough. Observe the implied success of John's work as herald.
He so prepared the way that men were eager to enter the kingdom which he had said was at hand. The kingdom of heaven. The realm ruled over by Messiah, of which the then community of believers was the earnest.
Suffereth violence ( βιάζεται). In Luke it is middle, "Every man entereth violently into it;" and though it is certainly passive here, St. Luke's phrase compels us to understand the reason of the violence to be entrance into the kingdom.
The kingdom is not ill treated, but it is as it were taken by storm (Meyer). Nosgen strangely understands the phrase to mean that the kingdom is set forward with power, and he would apparently see in "the violent" a special reference to our Lord and John.
And the violent; and men of violence (Revised Version); καὶ βιασταί: only they; men whose mind is made up and who care not what force and power they employ to attain their object. Take it by force; ἁρπάζζουσιν αὐτήν, "grasp it for themselves," like rough and violent bandits seizing their prey.
Weiss sees in this verse blame of the politico-Messianic endeavours to hasten the completion of the kingdom. This explanation is good in itself (cf. John 6:15), but disconnects the verse from its context.
Our Lord is describing the energy with which some souls are pressing in, and urging the need of such energy if salvation is to be obtained.