Luke 9:51 to Luke 18:31_. Rejected by the Samaritans. A lesson of Tolerance._ 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 Luke 9:51... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 10:1-24. The Mission of the Seventy. 1. _After these things_ i.e. after finally leaving Galilee, and starting on His great Peraean progress. _other seventy also_ Rather, ALSO OTHERS (besides the Twelve) SEVENTY IN NUMBER. Some MSS. read seventy-two (B, D, M, &c.). The number had evident refer... [ Continue Reading ]
_The harvest truly is great_ Compare Matthew 9:37; John 4:35. _sendforth_ The word literally means -drive forth," and though it has lost its full force implies urgency and haste. See similar uses of the word in John 10:4; Matthew 9:38; Mark 1:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
_as lambs_ -as sheep," Matthew 10:16 (of the Twelve). The slight variation must not be pressed. The impression meant to be conveyed is merely that of simplicity and defencelessness. A tradition, as old as Clemens Romanus, tells us that St Peter had asked (on the previous occasion), -But how then if... [ Continue Reading ]
_neither purse_ Compare Luke 9:1-6, and notes; Matthew 10:1-42. St Luke uses the Greek _balantion;_St Mark the Oriental _zonen_-girdle." _salute no man by the way_ A common direction in cases of urgency (2 Kings 4:29), and partly explicable by the length and loitering elaborateness of Eastern greet... [ Continue Reading ]
_Peace be to this house_ Adopted in our service for the Visitation of the Sick. God's messengers should begin first with prayers for peace, not with objurgations. Bengel.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the son of peace_ Rather, A SON OF PEACE, i.e. _a man of peaceful heart._Comp. for the phrase Luke 16:8; Luke 20:36; John 17:12; Ephesians 5:6; Ephesians 5:8. _it shall turn to you again_ Matthew 10:13. "My prayer returned into mine own bosom," Psalms 35:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
_eating and drinking such things as they give_ As a plain right. 1Co 9:4; 1 Corinthians 9:7-11. _the labourer is worthy of his hire_ Referred to by St Paul, 1 Timothy 5:18. Doubtless he may have been aware that our Lord had used it, but the saying was probably proverbial.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you_ So that our Lord's last messages resembled His first preaching, Matthew 4:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Even the very dust_ Acts 13:49-51; Acts 18:5-7.... [ Continue Reading ]
_more tolerable in that day for Sodom_ The great principle which explains these words may be found in Luke 12:47-48 (compare Hebrews 2:2-3; Hebrews 10:28-29).... [ Continue Reading ]
W _oe unto thee_, _Chorazin_ The mention of this town is very interesting because this is the only occasion (Matthew 11:21) on which the name occurs, and we are thus furnished with a very striking proof of the fragmentariness of the Gospels. The very site of Chorazin was long unknown. It has now bee... [ Continue Reading ]
_more tolerable...at the judgment_ A very important verse as proving the -intermediate state" (Hades) of human souls. The guilty inhabitants of these cities had received their temporal punishment (Genesis 19:24-25); but the final judgment was yet to come.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And thou, Capernaum)_Christ's "own city." _exalted to heaven_ by inestimable spiritual privileges. "Admitted into a holier sanctuary, they were guilty of a deeper sacrilege." A better reading is (for ἡ … ὑψωθεῖσα) is μὴ ὑψωθήσῃ; "Shalt thou be exalted to heaven? Thou shalt be thrust down...!" _sh... [ Continue Reading ]
_despiseth)_Literally, _"setting at nought_." For comment on the verse see 1 Thessalonians 4:8; Matthew 18:5; John 12:44.... [ Continue Reading ]
_returned again with joy_ The success of their mission is more fully recorded than that of the Twelve. _the devils_ Rather, THE DEMONS. They had been bidden (Luke 10:9 ) to "heal the sick;" but these are the only healings that they mention. _are subject_ Rather, are being subjected.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven_ Rather, I WAS observing Satan as lightning fallen from heaven, Isaiah 14:9-15. We find similar thoughts in John 16:11; John 12:31, "now shall the prince of this world be cast out;" 1 John 3:8; Hebrews 2:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I give_ Read, I HAVE GIVEN, with א, B, C, L, &c. _power_ Rather, the authority. _to tread on serpents and scorpions_ Compare Mark 16:17-18. So far as the promise was _literal,_the only fact of the kind referred to in the N. T. is Acts 28:3-5. In legend we have the story of St John saved from poi... [ Continue Reading ]
_are written in heaven_ Rather, HAVE BEEN RECORDED IN THE HEAVENS (reading ἐγγέγραπται _)._On this -Book of God," or -Book of Life," see Exodus 32:32; Psalms 69:28 _;_Daniel 12:1; Philippians 4:3; Hebrews 12:23; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 20:12; Revelation 21:27 [ Continue Reading ]
_rejoiced_ Rather, exulted, a much stronger word, and most valuable as recording one element the element of exultant joy in the life of our Lord, on which the Evangelists so rarely touch as to have originated the legend, preserved in the spurious letter of P. Lentulus to the Senate, that He wept oft... [ Continue Reading ]
_All things are delivered to me of my Father_ Rather, WERE DELIVERED TO ME BY, cf. Luke 20:14 . This entire verse is one of those in which the teaching of the Synoptists (Matthew 28:18) comes into nearest resemblance to that of St John, which abounds in such passages (John 1:18; John 3:35; John 5:26... [ Continue Reading ]
_Blessed are the eyes_ Comp. Matthew 13:16.... [ Continue Reading ]
_prophets and kings_ e.g. Abraham, Genesis 20:7; Genesis 23:6; Jacob, Genesis 49:18; Balaam, Numbers 24:17; David, 2 Samuel 23:1-5. _and have not seen them_ John 8:56; Ephesians 3:5-6; Hebrews 11:13. "Save that each little voice in turn Some glorious truth proclaims;... [ Continue Reading ]
25-37. The Parable of the Good Samaritan. 25. _a certain lawyer_ A teacher of the Mosaic Law differing little from a scribe, as the man is called in Mark 12:28. The same person may have had both functions that of preserving and that of expounding the Law. _tempted him_ Literally, _"putting Him ful... [ Continue Reading ]
_how readest thou?_ The phrase resembled one in constant use among the Rabbis, and the lawyer deserved to get no other answer because his question was not sincere. The very meaning and mission of his life was to teach this answer.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt love the Lord thy God_ This was the summary of the Law in Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12; Leviticus 19:18. _and thy neighbour as thyself_ Hillel had given this part of the answer to an enquirer who similarly came to put him to the test, and as far as it went, it was a right answer ... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou hast answered right_ "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?" Genesis 4:7; "which if a man do, he shall live in them," Leviticus 18:5; Romans 10:5; but see Galatians 3:21-22 _._ this do As the passage from Deuteronomy was one of those inscribed in the phylacteries (little leather box... [ Continue Reading ]
_willing to justify himself_ "before men" a thing which the Pharisees were ever prone to do, Luke 16:15. _who is my neighbour?_ He wants his moral duties to be labelled and defined with the Talmudic precision to which ceremonial duties had been reduced.... [ Continue Reading ]
_A certain man_ Clearly, as the tenor of the Parable implies, a Jew. _went down from Jerusalem to Jericho_ A rocky, dangerous gorge (Jos. _B. J._IV. 8, § 3), haunted by marauding Bedawin, and known as -the bloody way" (_Adommim_, Jerome, _De loc. Hebr._and on Jeremiah 3:2 _)._The "went down" is str... [ Continue Reading ]
_by chance_ Rather, BY COINCIDENCE, I.E. at the same time. The word -chance" (τύχη) does not occur in Scripture. The nearest approach to it is the participle τυχὸν in 1 Corinthians 15:37 (if τυγχάνοντα be omitted in Luke 10:30). Chance, to the sacred writers, as to the most thoughtful of the Greeks,... [ Continue Reading ]
_came and looked on him_ This vivid touch shews us the cold curiosity of the Levite, which was even baser than the dainty neglect of the Priest. Perhaps the Priest had been aware that a Levite was behind him, and left the trouble to him: and perhaps the Levite said to himself that _he_need not do wh... [ Continue Reading ]
_a certain Samaritan_ A Samaritan is thus selected for high eulogy though the Samaritans had so ignominiously rejected Jesus (Luke 9:53)- _as he journeyed_ He was not -coming down* as the Priest and Levite were from the Holy City and the Temple, but from the unauthorised worship of alien Gerizim. _... [ Continue Reading ]
_pouring in oil and wine_ The ordinary remedies of the day. Isaiah 1:6; Mark 6:13; James 5:14. See Excursus VII. _set him on his own beast_ The word implies the labour of -lifting him up," and then the good Samaritan _walked by_his side. _brought him to an inn Pandocheion._See on Luke 2:7. There t... [ Continue Reading ]
_took out_ Literally, "_throwing out"_of his girdle. _two pence_ i.e. two _denarii;_enough to pay for the man for some days. The Parable lends itself to the broader meaning which sees the state of mankind wounded by evil passions and spiritual enemies; left unhelped by systems of sacrifice and cere... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that shewed mercy on him_ Rather, the pity. By this poor periphrasis the lawyer avoids the shock to his own prejudices, which would have been involved in the hated word, -the Samaritan." "He will not name the Samaritan by name, the haughty hypocrite." Luther. _Go, and do thou likewise_ The gene... [ Continue Reading ]
38-42. The Sisters of Bethany. 38. _into a certain village_ Undoubtedly Bethany, John 11:1. Both this and the expression "_a certain woman_" are obvious traces of a tendency to reticence about the family of Bethany which we find in the Synoptists (Matthew 26:6; Mark 14:3). It was doubtless due to t... [ Continue Reading ]
_which also sat at Jesus_" _feet_ The "also" shews that Mary too, in her way, was no less anxious to give Jesus a fitting reception. Here, in one or two lines, we have a most clear sketch of the contrasted character of the two sisters, far too subtly and indirectly accordant with what we learn of th... [ Continue Reading ]
_cumbered about much serving_ The word for "cumbered" literally means -was being dragged in different directions," i.e. was _distracted_(1 Corinthians 7:35). She was anxious to give her Lord a most hospitable reception, and was vexed at the contemplative humility which she regarded as slothfulness.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Martha_, _Martha_ The repeated name adds additional tenderness to the rebuke, as in Luke 22:31; Acts 9:4. _thou art careful and troubled about many things_ "I would have you without carefulness," 1 Corinthians 7:32; Matthew 6:25. The words literally mean, -Thou art anxious and bustling." Her inwa... [ Continue Reading ]