Armenia in comments -- Book: Matthew (tMt) Մատթէոս
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tMt 17:10 His disciples - instead of His disciples, some MSS., with the Coptic, Armenian, Vulgate, all the Itala except two, and Origen, read simply, οι μαθηται, The disciples, i.e. those only who had been with him on the mount, Peter, James, and John.
Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? - As the disciples saw that Elijah returned to heaven, knowing the tradition of the elders, and the prophecy on which the tradition was founded, Mal 4:5, Mal 4:6, Behold I send you Elijah the prophet, before the great and terrible day of the Lord shall come; and he shall turn the hearts, etc., it was natural enough for them to inquire what the meaning of the tradition, and the intention of the prophecy, were. Matthew 17:11 tMt 17:20 Because of your unbelief - Are we preachers of the Gospel? Do the things of God rest upon our minds with a deep and steady conviction? Can we expect that a doctrine which we do not, from conviction, credit ourselves, can be instrumental in our hands of begetting faith in others? So we preached, end so ye believed. The word preached generally begets in the people the same spirit which the preacher possesses. Instead of απιϚιαν, unbelief, the famous Vatican MS. and Cod. Cyprius, six others, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, and Arabic, Origen, and Chrysostom, read ολιγοπιϚιαν, littleness of faith. The disciples had some faith, but not enough - they believed, but not fully.
As a grain of mustard seed - Some eminent critics think this a proverbial expression, intimating a Great Degree of faith, because removing mountains, which St. Paul, Co1 13:2, attributes to All Faith; i.e. the greatest possible degree of faith, is attributed here, by our Lord, to that faith which is as a grain of mustard seed. However this may be, there can be no doubt that our Lord means, as Bishop Pearce well remarks, a thriving and increasing faith; which like the grain of mustard seed, from being the least of seeds, becomes the greatest of all herbs; even a tree in whose branches the fowls of the air take shelter. See Wakefield's Comment, and the note on Mat 13:32 (note). Matthew 17:21