Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Luke 13:32

τῇ�. ‘This she-fox,’ as though Christ saw him actually present, or identified his fox-like nature with that which the Pharisees were now displaying. The fact that the word is feminine may be only due to its being generic. The fox was among the ancients, as well as among the moderns, the type of knavish craftiness and covert attack (comp. ἀλωπεκίζω, Ar. Vesp. 1241, and Ajax calls Odysseus a fox, κίναδος). This is the only word of unmitigated contempt (as distinguished from rebuke and scorn) recorded among the utterances of Christ, and it was more than justified by the mingled tyranny and timidity, insolence and baseness of Herod Antipas—a half-Samaritan, half-Idumaean tetrarch, who, professing Judaism, lived in heathen practices, and governed by the grace of Caesar and the help of alien mercenaries; who had murdered the greatest of the Prophets to gratify a dancing wanton; and who was living at that moment in an adultery doubly-incestuous with a woman of whom he had treacherously robbed his brother while he was his guest.

σήμερον καὶ αὔριον. It is probable that these expressions are general (as in Hosea 6:2). They mean ‘I shall stay in Herod’s dominions with perfect security for a brief while longer till my work is done.’ It must be remembered that Peraea was in the tetrarchate of Herod, so that this incident may have occurred during the slow and solemn progress towards Jerusalem.

τῇ τρίτῃ τελειοῦμαι. Vulg[281] It[282] consummor. The verb has been variously rendered and explained. Bleek makes it mean ‘I shall end’ (my work in Galilee); Godet, ‘I am being perfected,’ in the sense of ‘I shall arrive at the destined end of my work’; Resch, ‘I complete my work’ by one crowning miracle (John 11:40-44). This solemn meaning best accords with other usages of the word, e.g. in the cry from the Cross τετέλεσται, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30). See too Hebrews 5:9; Hebrews 11:40. τελείωσις became an ecclesiastical term for ‘martyrdom.’

[281] Vulg. Vulgate.
[282] It. Old Latin Version (Itala).

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Luke 13:32

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