Luke 18:1-8
Luke 18:1-8. THE DUTY OF URGENT PRAYER. THE UNJUST JUDGE... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 18:1-8. THE DUTY OF URGENT PRAYER. THE UNJUST JUDGE... [ Continue Reading ]
ΑΥ̓ΤΟΎΣ La[312] Ti[313], &c. following the best MSS. [312] La. Lachmann. [313] Ti. Tischendorf. 1. ΔΕΙ͂Ν ΠΆΝΤΟΤΕ ΠΡΟΣΕΎΧΕΣΘΑΙ ΑΥ̓ΤΟΎΣ. ‘That they ought always to pray,’ since the true reading adds αὑτούς. It is only here and in Luke 18:9 that the explanation or point of a parable is given before th... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPS. Luke 9:51 to Luke 18:31 This section forms a great episode in St Luke, which may be called the departure for the final conflict, and is identical with the journey (probably to the Feast of the Dedication, John 10:22) which is partially touched upon in Matthew 18:1 to Matthew 20:16 and Mark 10... [ Continue Reading ]
ΚΡΙΤΉΣ ΤΙΣ. ‘A certain judge.’ The little story is not improbably taken from life, and doubtless the inferior judges under such a sovereignty as that of the Herods might afford many instances of carelessness and venality. ΤῸΝ ΘΕῸΝ ΜῊ ΦΟΒΟΎΜΕΝΟΣ Κ.Τ.Λ. On the μὴ see Luke 13:11. The description of a c... [ Continue Reading ]
ΧΉΡΑ. See Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 10:18; Isaiah 1:17; Isaiah 1:23; Malachi 3:5; 2 Samuel 14:2; 2 Samuel 14:5. The necessity for _special_ justice and kindness to widows rose from the fact that in the East they were of all classes the most defenceless and oppressed. Hence the prominent place which... [ Continue Reading ]
ΕἾΠΕΝ ἘΝ ἙΑΥΤΩ͂Ι. The shamelessness with which he acknowledges his own sin renders it still more aggravated. ΕἸ ΚΑῚ ΤῸΝ ΘΕῸΝ Κ.Τ.Λ. The οὐ coalesces with the φοβοῦμαι and is unaffected by εἰ as in Luke 11:8; Luke 16:11-12, &c. “The creed of a powerful atheist.” Bengel.... [ Continue Reading ]
ὙΠΟΠΙΈΖΗΙ in some MSS., rose only from not understanding the rare word. 5. ΠΑΡΈΧΕΙΝ ΜΟΙ ΚΌΠΟΝ. ‘Gives me trouble.’ ΕἸΣ ΤΈΛΟΣ ἘΡΧΟΜΈΝΗ. Literally, ‘_coming to the end_,’ ‘_coming for ever_’—another colloquialism. ὙΠΩΠΙΆΖΗΙ ΜΕ. Vulg[323] _ne sugillet me_. Beza, _ne obtundat me_. Literally, ‘_should... [ Continue Reading ]
Ὁ ΚΡΙΤῊΣ ΤΗ͂Σ�. Literally, ‘_the judge of injustice_.’ Cp. Luke 16:8.... [ Continue Reading ]
Ὁ ΔῈ ΘΕΌΣ. The argument is simply a _fortiori_. Even an unjust and abandoned judge grants a just petition at last out of base motives when it is often urged, to a defenceless person for whom he cares nothing; how much more shall a just and merciful God hear the cry and avenge the cause of those whom... [ Continue Reading ]
ΠΟΙΉΣΕΙ ΤῊΝ ἘΚΔΊΚΗΣΙΝ ΑΥ̓ΤΩ͂Ν. Isaiah 63:4; Psalms 9:12, “When He maketh inquisition for blood, He remembereth them, He forgetteth not the cry of the humble.” “Yet a little while,” Hebrews 10:37; 2 Peter 3:8-9. The best comment on the Parable and our Lord’s explanation of it may be found in His own... [ Continue Reading ]
ΤΟῪΣ ΠΕΠΟΙΘΌΤΑΣ ἘΦ' ἙΑΥΤΟΙ͂Σ. See Luke 16:15; Philippians 3:4; 2 Corinthians 1:9. The Jewish words ‘_Jashar_,’ ‘the upright man,’ and ‘_Tsaddik_,’ ‘just,’ expressed their highest moral ideal; but they made their uprightness and justice consist so much in attention to the ceremonial minutiae of the L... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DUTY OF HUMBLE PRAYER. THE PHARISEE AND THE TAX-GATHERER... [ Continue Reading ]
ἈΝΈΒΗΣΑΝ. The Temple stood on Mount Moriah, which was always called the ‘Hill of the House’ (_Har ha-Beth_). ΠΡΟΣΕΎΞΑΣΘΑΙ. The Temple had long become naturally, and most fitly, a “House of Prayer” (Luke 19:46), though this was not its main original function.... [ Continue Reading ]
ΣΤΑΘΕΊΣ. The word might almost be rendered ‘_posing himself_.’ Standing was the ordinary Jewish attitude of prayer (1 Kings 8:22; Mark 11:25), but the word (which is not used of the Tax-gatherer) seems to imply that he stood by himself to avoid the contaminating contact of the ‘people of the earth,’... [ Continue Reading ]
ΝΗΣΤΕΎΩ ΔῚΣ ΤΟΥ͂ ΣΑΒΒΆΤΟΥ. Mark 2:18. This practice had no divine sanction. The Law appointed only a single fast-day in the year, the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29). By the time of Zechariah there seem to have been _four_ yearly fasts (Zechariah 8:19). The bi-weekly fast of the Pharisees was a m... [ Continue Reading ]
ΜΑΚΡΌΘΕΝ ἙΣΤΏΣ. The word for standing is not σταθεὶς as in the case of the Pharisee, but merely ἑστώς. It is not certain whether the “afar off” means ‘afar off from the Pharisee,’ or (as is more probable) afar off from the Holy Place to which the Pharisee would thrust himself, as of right, into clos... [ Continue Reading ]
ΠΑΡ' ἘΚΕΙ͂ΝΟΝ אBL, Copt. Sah[314] μᾶλλον παρ' ἐκ. D. ἢ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος AE, &c. ἢ ἐκ. Elz. If this last reading were right the ἢ must be explained as in Luke 15:7. [314] Sah. Sahidic Version. 14. ΔΕΔΙΚΑΙΩΜΈΝΟΣ. Of the Pharisee it might be said, “His soul which is lifted up is not upright in him;” but of... [ Continue Reading ]
ΤᾺ ΒΡΈΦΗ. ‘_Their babes_.’ At this point St Luke ends the special information which he derived from the documents about the journey, and rejoins the main stream of the synoptic narrative. It seems to have been a custom of Jewish mothers to carry their babes to eminent Rabbis for their blessing; natu... [ Continue Reading ]
JESUS AND THE CHILDREN. A LESSON OF HUMILITY... [ Continue Reading ]
ΠΡΟΣΕΚΑΛΈΣΑΤΟ. St Mark adds that Jesus was much displeased with the officious interference of the disciples who so little understood His tenderness. ΤΩ͂Ν ΓᾺΡ ΤΟΙΟΎΤΩΝ. Because children are meek, humble, trustful, guileless, unsophisticated, pure. It was a lesson which Jesus often taught, Matthew 5:... [ Continue Reading ]
ἌΡΧΩΝ. St Matthew (Matthew 19:20) only calls him “a young man.” He was probably the young and wealthy ruler of a synagogue. The touch added by St Mark (Mark 10:17), that he suddenly ran up and fell on his knees before Him, seems to imply that he was eager to catch the opportunity of speaking to Jesu... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GREAT REFUSAL. THE YOUNG RULER WHO LOVED RICHES MORE THAN CHRIST... [ Continue Reading ]
ΤΊ ΜΕ ΛΈΓΕΙΣ�; According to St Matthew the question also ran, ‘Why askest thou me about the good?’ The emphasis is not on the _me_ (for the form used is the enclitic με not ἐμὲ) but on _good_. Why do you give me this strange title which from _your_ point of view is unwarrantable? Comp. Plato _Phaed.... [ Continue Reading ]
20. St Matthew says that our Lord first answered, “Keep the commandments,” and when the young man asked, ‘_What kind_ of commandments?’ expecting probably some recondite points of casuistry—minute rules (_Halachôth_) out of the oral Law—our Lord to his surprise mentions the broadest and most obvious... [ Continue Reading ]
ΤΑΥ͂ΤΑ ΠΆΝΤΑ ἘΦΎΛΑΞΑ. This is a better reading than ἐφυλαξάμην. φυλάσσεσθαι in the sense of _sibi custodire legem_ is common in the LXX[327], but not in classical Greek. There seems to have been an accent of extreme surprise in his reply. ‘You bid me not be a thief, adulterer, murderer! For whom do... [ Continue Reading ]
ἈΚΟΎΣΑΣ. St Mark says that ‘looking on him, He loved him,’ or rather ‘was pleased with him.’ Some have rendered the words ‘He kissed him,’ since Rabbis in token of approval sometimes kissed a good scholar on the head; this, however, would require not ἠγάπησεν, but ἐφίλησεν. There was something graci... [ Continue Reading ]
ΠΕΡΊΛΥΠΟΣ ἘΓΕΝΉΘΗ. St Matthew says, ‘he went away grieving;’ St Mark adds that ‘his brow grew gloomy and cloudy at the command’ (στυγνάσας ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ). And thus at the time he made, through cowardice or meanness of mind, what Dante (_Inf._ X. 27) calls ‘_il gran rifiuto_,’ ‘the great refusal,’ and... [ Continue Reading ]
ἸΔῺΝ ΔῈ ΑΥ̓ΤΌΝ. Several good uncials read merely ‘when Jesus saw him.’ The Gospel to the Hebrews as quoted by Origen on Matthew 19:19 has here a weak and prosaic addition, which shews its complete inferiority. ΟἹ ΤᾺ ΧΡΉΜΑΤΑ ἜΧΟΝΤΕΣ. The striking reading of some MSS. (אB, &c.) in Mark 10:24, is that... [ Continue Reading ]
ΤΡΉΜΑΤΟΣ אBD, La[315] Ti[316] for τρυμαλιᾶς (AEFG) or τρυπήματος. βελόνης אBDL. ῥαφίδος is from the parallels. [315] La. Lachmann. [316] Ti. Tischendorf. 25. ΚΆΜΗΛΟΝ. To soften the apparent harshness of this expression, some have conjectured κάμιλον, ‘a rope;’ and some have explained ‘the needle’s... [ Continue Reading ]
ΚΑῚ ΤΊΣ ΔΎΝΑΤΑΙ ΣΩΘΗ͂ΝΑΙ; The καὶ at the beginning of the question expresses agitation and surprise. Comp. 2 Corinthians 2:2. Winer, p. 545. Here once more we catch the echo of the sighing despair caused in the minds of the still immature Apostles by some of our Lord’s harder sayings.... [ Continue Reading ]
ΔΥΝΑΤᾺ ΠΑΡᾺ ΤΩ͂Ι ΘΕΩ͂Ι. See on Luke 1:37. “There is nothing too hard for thee,” Jeremiah 32:17; comp. Job 42:2; Zechariah 8:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἈΦΈΝΤΕΣ ΤᾺ ἼΔΙΑ אBDE, Gr[317] La[318] Ti[319] The Rec[320] is from the parallels. [317] Gr. Griesbach. [318] La. Lachmann. [319] Ti. Tischendorf. [320] Rec. The Textus Receptus. 28. ΕἾΠΕΝ ΔῈ Ὁ ΠΈΤΡΟΣ. The feeling which dictated his remark is uncertain; perhaps it was a passing touch of self-congra... [ Continue Reading ]
ΟΥ̓ΔΕῚΣ … ὋΣ�. Compare the sacrifice and reward of the sons of Levi, Deuteronomy 33:8-11. ΕἽΝΕΚΕΝ ΤΗ͂Σ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΊΑΣ ΤΟΥ͂ ΘΕΟΥ͂. Unless the motive be pure, the sacrifice is unavailing.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἈΠΟΛΆΒΗΙ, see note. 30. ἈΠΟΛΆΒΗΙ. ‘_Receive as his due_.’ Comp. Luke 6:34; Luke 16:25; Luke 23:41. ΠΟΛΛΑΠΛΑΣΊΟΝΑ. St Matthew and St Mark say ‘a hundredfold,’ and St Matthew adds that in the Palingenesia—the New Birthday of the World, the Restoration of all things—they shall sit on twelve thrones,... [ Continue Reading ]
JESUS PROPHESIES THAT HE SHOULD BE CRUCIFIED Between these verses and the last should probably be inserted the journey from the Peraean Bethany to the Judaean Bethany, and the Raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-46). This signal miracle was omitted by the Synoptists for the same reasons as those which led... [ Continue Reading ]
ΠΑΡΑΛΑΒΏΝ. ‘_Taking them apart_,’ and on the road, as we learn from Matthew 20:17. St Mark, with one of his graphic touches of detail, describes Jesus walking before them, and (as we infer from the expression of the Evangelist) in such awful majesty of sorrow that those nearest Him were filled with... [ Continue Reading ]
ΤΟΙ͂Σ ἜΘΝΕΣΙΝ. This was the third, and by far the clearest and most circumstantial prophecy respecting His death. Hitherto, except for scattered hints which they could not understand (Luke 9:22; Luke 9:45), the Apostles might have supposed that Jesus would be put to death by the Jewish authorities.... [ Continue Reading ]
ΟΥ̓ΔῈΝ ΤΟΎΤΩΝ ΣΥΝΗ͂ΚΑΝ, as had been the case before, Luke 9:43-45; and St Mark tells us (Luke 9:32) that “they were afraid to ask Him.” It was only at a later period that the full significance of all these words dawned on them (John 12:16). We must learn, as Pascal says, to _love_ divine truths befo... [ Continue Reading ]
ἘΝ ΤΩ͂Ι ἘΓΓΊΖΕΙΝ ΑΥ̓ΤῸΝ ΕἸΣ ἹΕΡΕΙΧΏ. This would be a week before our Lord’s death—on the evening of Thursday, Nisan 7, or the morning of Friday, Nisan 8. St Mark (Mark 10:46) and St Matthew (Matthew 20:29) say that this miracle took place as He was leaving Jericho. With simple and truthful writers l... [ Continue Reading ]
BARTIMAEUS HEALED AT JERICHO... [ Continue Reading ]
ΤΊ ΕἼΗ ΤΟΥ͂ΤΟ. ‘_What this might be_.’ See Luke 15:26. Ἄν might also have been used in this dependent question; or the indicative as in Acts 21:33, ἐπυνθάνετο τίς ἂν εἴη καὶ τί ἐστι πεποιηκώς.... [ Continue Reading ]
ΥἹῈ ΔΑΥΕΊΔ. The use of this Messianic title implies a strong faith in Bartimaeus. ἘΛΈΗΣΌΝ ΜΕ. “The Kyrie Eleison of the soul which precedes its Hosanna.” Van Oosterzee.... [ Continue Reading ]
ΣΙΓΉΣΗΙ La[321] Ti[322] from the best MSS. σιωπήσῃ is from the parallels. It suits the sense best, for σιωπᾶν = _tacere_ ‘to hold the tongue;’ and σιγᾶν = _silere_, ‘to make no noise.’ But σιγᾶν is peculiar to St Luke and St Paul. [321] La. Lachmann. [322] Ti. Tischendorf. 39. ἘΠΕΤΊΜΩΝ ΑΥ̓ΤΩ͂Ι. Co... [ Continue Reading ]
ἘΓΓΊΣΑΝΤΟΣ ΔῈ ΑΥ̓ΤΟΥ͂. The narrative of St Mark, which is evidently derived from an immediate eye-witness, describes Bartimaeus as ‘springing to his feet and flinging away his outer robe,’ when he was told that Jesus had called him.... [ Continue Reading ]
ΘΈΛΕΙΣ ΠΟΙΉΣΩ. See note on Luke 9:54. ΚΎΡΙΕ. In St Mark the title given is _Rabboni_, the highest form of the title Rabbi.... [ Continue Reading ]
Ἡ ΠΊΣΤΙΣ ΣΟΥ ΣΈΣΩΚΈΝ ΣΕ. The brief sentences of the narrative have been beautifully woven by Mr Longfellow into his little poem of Blind Bartimaeus: “Recall those mighty voices three, Ἰησοῦ ἐλέησόν με! Θάρσει, ἔγειραι! Ὕπαγε· Ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέ σε!”... [ Continue Reading ]
ΔΟΞΆΖΩΝ ΤῸΝ ΘΕΌΝ. The time for any reticence respecting miracles was long past. St Luke is specially fond of recording doxologies. See Luke 5:26; Luke 7:16; Luke 13:17; Luke 17:15; Luke 23:47. ΑἾΝΟΝ. A poetical word, which in the N.T. is only found here and in Matthew 21:16, but is more common in t... [ Continue Reading ]