Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Luke 15:13

μετ' οὐ πολλὰς ἡμέρας. This shadows forth the rapidity (1) of national, and (2) of individual degeneracy. “In some children,” says Sir Thomas Elyot in The Governour, “nature is more prone to vice than to vertue, and in the tender wìttes be sparkes of voluptuositie, whiche norished by any occasion or objecte, encrease often tymes into so terrible a fire, that therwithall vertue and reason is consumed.” The first sign of going wrong is yearning for spurious liberty.

ἀπεδήμησεν εἰς χώραν μακράν. Discedentes a se non prohibet, redeuntes complectitur, Maldonatus. The Gentiles soon became “afar off” from God (Acts 2:39; Ephesians 2:17), “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” So too the individual soul, in its temptations and its guiltiness, ever tries in vain to escape from God (Psalms 139:7-10) into the ‘far country’ of sin, which involves forgetfulness of Him. Jer. Ep. 146. Thus the younger son becomes “Lord of himself, that heritage of woe.”

ζῶν�. Literally, ‘living ruinously’—perdite. The adverb occurs here only, and is derived from α, ‘not,’ and σώζω, ‘I save.’ The substantive occurs in 1 Peter 4:4; Ephesians 5:18. Aristotle defines ἀσωτία as a mixture of intemperance and prodigality. For the historical fact indicated, see Romans 1:19-32. The individual fact needs, alas! no illustration. One phrase—two words—is enough. Our loving Saviour does not dwell upon or darken the details of our sinfulness.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Luke 15:13

Old Testament

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