Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Luke 19:29

ἐλαιών. See note.

29. Βηθφαγή. The site is not identified, but it seems to have been regarded as a suburb of Jerusalem. The name means House of (unripe) Figs.

καὶ Βηθανίαν. Perhaps the House of Dates, but this is very uncertain. The mention of Bethany after Bethphage is surprising. Here, however, St Luke omits the supper in the house of ‘Simon the leper’ (Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-19) and the anointing of Jesus by Mary of Bethany. Jesus arrived at Bethany before sunset on Friday, Nisan 8 (March 31, A.D. 30), and therefore before the Sabbath began. Here the throng of Galilaean pilgrims would leave Him to go to their friends in Jerusalem, or to make booths for themselves in the valley of the Kidron and on the slopes of Olivet. The Sabbath was spent in quiet. The supper was in the evening, otherwise the Jews could not have come from Jerusalem, as the distance exceeded a Sabbath day’s journey. It was on the next morning (Palm Sunday) that our Lord started for Jerusalem. His stay at Bethany may have been due to friendship, or may have been dictated by prudence. It was the brooding over the imagined loss of the value of the precious ointment—an assault of Satan at the weakest point—which first drove Judas to his secret interview with the Sadducean priests.

Ἐλαιών. Nom. sing. Olivetum, olive-grove. St Luke uses this form, not the gen. plur. ἐλαιῶν. See Luke 21:37; Acts 1:12, and Jos. Antt. VII. 9, § 2, ἐλαιῶνος ὄρος. The name is here regarded as a sound, and therefore is not put in the accusative. Comp. ἦν ὄνομα τῷ δούλῳ Μάλχος, John 18:10. See Winer, p. 226.

δύο τῶν μαθητῶν. The minute touch of description in Mark 11:4 has led to the conjecture that Peter was one of these two.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Luke 19:29

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