αὐτὸς δὲ ἦν ὑποχωρῶν ἐν ταῖς ἐρήμοις. ‘But He Himself was retiring in the wilderness and praying.’ St Mark (Mark 1:45) gives us the clearest view of the fact by telling us that the leper blazoned abroad his cure in every direction, “so that He was no longer able to enter openly into a city, but was without, in desert spots; and they began to come to Him from all directions.” We here see that this retirement was a sort of “Levitical purification,” which however the multitudes disregarded as soon as they discovered where He was.

καὶ προσευχόμενος. St Luke’s is eminently the Gospel of Prayer and Thanksgiving. See note on Luke 3:21.

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Old Testament