Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Luke 13:15

ὑποκριταί. The address is in the plural, not only to the ruler of the synagogue but to all his class.

15. ὑποκριταί. ‘Hypocrites!’ (אAB), classing the man with the whole sect to which he belonged, and whose shibboleths he used. They were hypocrites (i.e. they were acting a part) because they were disguising secret enmity under a pretence of sabbatical zeal.

τῷ σαββάτῳ … λύει τὸν βοῦν. Our Lord varied from time to time the arguments with which He abolished the fanatical formalism of the Pharisees respecting the Sabbath. Sometimes He appealed to His own inherent authority (John 5:17-47); sometimes to Scripture precedents (Luke 6:3-5); or to common sense and eternal principles (Luke 6:9). Here, as in Luke 14:5, He uses an argumentum ad hominem, refuting their traditional rules by the selfish insincerity with which they applied them. They allowed men to unloose and lead to water their cattle on the sabbath, and thus to break their own Sabbatic rules, in order to save themselves the trouble of providing water overnight, or, at the best, to abridge a few hours’ thirst; was then this suffering woman not to be touched, not to be spoken to, even in order to end 18 years of suffering?

ἀπὸ τῆς φάτνης. ‘From the manger,’ Luke 2:7.

ἀπαγαγών. The pictorial participle—“ad opus demonstrandum.” Bengel.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Luke 13:15

Old Testament

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