Luke 20:1

οἱ�, אBCD, La[341] W.H[342] The reading in A, Ti[343] &c. is ἱερεῖς.

[341] La. Lachmann.
[342] W.H. Westcott and Hort.
[343] Ti. Tischendorf.

1. ἐν μιᾷ τῶν ἡμερῶν. ‘On one of the days.’ Ἐκείνων is omitted in אBDLQ. By careful comparison of the Evangelists we find that after the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, our Lord was received in the Temple by the children—probably those engaged in the Choral Service of the Temple—with shouts of Hosanna, which again called forth the embittered rebuke of the priests. These rebukes He silenced by a reference to Psalms 8:2. Then came the message brought to Him by Andrew and Philip from the Greek enquirers (supposed by some to have been sent by Abgarus V., King of Edessa), and the Voice from Heaven. After this He retired privately from the Temple, and bivouacked (ηὐλίσθη) for the night on the Mount of Olives (John 12:20-25; Matthew 21:17). Next morning—Monday in Passion Week—occurred the incident of the Fruitless Figtree (Matthew 21:18-19), and it was after this that our Lord entered the Temple. This Monday in Passion Week may be called a Day of Parables, since on it were uttered the Parables of the Two Sons (Matthew 21:28-32); the Rebellious Husbandmen (Matthew 21:9-16); the Rejected Cornerstone (Matthew 21:17-18); and the Marriage of the King’s Son (Matthew 22:1-14).

εὐαγγελιζομένου, Luke 3:18; Luke 4:43, &c. This beautiful word is almost confined to St Luke, who uses it twenty-five times, and St Paul, who uses it twenty times.

ἐπέστησαν. The word implies a sudden and hostile demonstration (Acts 4:1; Acts 6:12; Acts 23:27). Thus they surrounded Him while He was walking in the Temple (Mark 11:27). The idea of suddenness is sometimes separately expressed (αἰφνίδιος, Luke 21:34).

οἱ�. The chief priests were the heads of the twenty-four courses. It was probably the humble triumph of Palm Sunday, and the intense excitement produced in the city (ἐσείσθη) by the arrival of Jesus (Matthew 21:10), which first awoke the active jealousy of the chief priests of Jerusalem, who were wealthy Sadducees in alliance with the Herodians, and who had hitherto despised Jesus as only a ‘Prophet of Nazareth.’ From this period of the narrative, the hostility of the Pharisees, as such, is much less marked. Indeed they would have sympathised with the cleansing of the Temple, which involved a terrible reflexion on the greed and neglect of the hierarchic party.

σὺν τοῖς πρεσβυτέροις. There were probably three great sections of the Sanhedrin: 1, Priests; 2, Scribes and Rabbis (Sopherîm, Tanaîm, &c.); and 3, Levites. Derenbourg, Pal. ch. 6. Comp. John 1:19.