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 16:1-13. The Unjust Steward. 1. _And he said also unto his disciples_ In interpreting the two following parables it is specially necessary to bear in mind the _tertium comparationis_, i.e. the one special point which our Lord had in view. To press each detail into a separate dogmatic truth is... [ Continue Reading ]
_give an account_ Rather, RENDER THE ACCOUNT. _thou mayest be no longer steward_ Rather, THOU CANST NOT BE ANY LONGER STEWARD.... [ Continue Reading ]
_1 cannot dig_ Rather, TO DIG I AM NOT STRONG ENOUGH. _to beg I am ashamed_ Sir 40:28, "better die than beg.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I am. resolved what to do_ The original graphically represents the sudden flash of discovery -I have it! I know now what to do." _into their houses_ Literally, "_into their own houses"_I will confer on them such a boon that they will not leave me houseless. This eating the bread of dependence, whi... [ Continue Reading ]
_So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him_ In the East rents are paid in kind, and a responsible steward, if left quite uncontrolled, has the amplest opportunity to defraud his lord, because the produce necessarily varies from year to year. The unjust steward would naturally receive fro... [ Continue Reading ]
_measures_ The Hebrew _bath_and the Greek _metretes;_rather less than, but roughly corresponding to, the _firkin =_9 gallons. This remission would represent a large sum of money. _Take thy bill_ Rather, Receive thy hill. The steward hands the bill back to the tenant to be altered. _write fifty_ Si... [ Continue Reading ]
_measures of wheat_ Not the same word as before, but _cors._The _cor_is believed to be about an English -quarter," i.e. 8 bushels, but from Jos. _Antt._xv. 9, § 92, it seems to have been nearly 12 bushels. The steward knows what he is about, and makes his remissions according to the probabilities of... [ Continue Reading ]
_the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely_ The lord is of course only the landlord of the parable. The word _phronimos_does not mean -wisely" (a word which is used in a higher sense), but _prudently._The tricky cleverness, by which the steward had endeavoured at once to esca... [ Continue Reading ]
_Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness_ The Greek may mean either _Make the unrighteous mammon your friend;_or _make yourselves friends by your use of the unrighteous mammon._There is no proof that Mammon is the Hebrew equivalent to Plutus, the Greek god of wealth (Matthew 6:24... [ Continue Reading ]
_faithful in that which is least_ Comp. Luke 19:17. The most which we can have in this world is -least" compared to the smallest gift of heaven.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the true riches_ Literally, "_that which is true,"_i.e. real and not evanescent. Earthly riches are neither true, nor ours.... [ Continue Reading ]
_that which is another man's_ The lesson of the verse is that nothing which we possess on earth is our own; it is entrusted to us for temporary use (1 Chronicles 29:14), which shall be rewarded by real and eternal possessions (1 Peter 1:4)."Vitaque _mancipio_nulli datur, omnibus _usu,"_Lucr. ill. 98... [ Continue Reading ]
_No servant can serve two masters_ God requires a whole heart and an undivided service. "If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ," Galatians 1:10."Whosoever...will be the friend of the world is the enemy of God," James 4:4. "Covetousness...is _idolatry Colossians 3:5_.... [ Continue Reading ]
14-31. DIVES AND LAZARUS, A PARABLE TO THE COVETOUS, PRECEDED BY REBUKES TO THE PHARISEES. 14. _who were covetous_ Rather, lovers OF money, 2 Timothy 3:2. The charge is amply borne out by the references in the Talmud to the rapacity shewn by the Rabbis and Priests of the period. See Matthew 23:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye are they which justify yourselves before men_ Luke 7:39; Luke 15:29; Matthew 23:25, &c. _God knoweth your hearts_ Hence God is called "a heart-knower" in Acts 15:8; and "in thy sight shall no man living be justified," Psalms 143:2. There is perhaps a reference to 1 Samuel 16:7; 1 Chronicles 28:... [ Continue Reading ]
_The law and the prophets were until John_ This is one of our Lord's clearest intimations that the aeon of the Law and the Prophets was now merging into a new dispensation, since they were only "a shadow of things to come," Colossians 2:17. _every man presseth into it_ The word implies -is making _... [ Continue Reading ]
_than one tittle of the law_ The word for -tittle" is _keraia,_the tip or horn of a letter, such as that which distinguishes ב from כ or ה from ח Thus the Jews said that the letter Yod prostrated itself before God, because Solomon had taken it from the law (in the word _Nashim)_by marrying many wive... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whosoever putteth away his wife_ At first sight this verse (which also occurs with an important limitation in Matthew 5:32) appears so loosely connected with the former as to lead the Dutch theologian Van der Palm to suppose that St Luke was merely utilising a spare fragment on the page by insertin... [ Continue Reading ]
_There was a certain rich man_ He is left nameless, perhaps to imply that _his_name was not "written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). Legend gives him the name _Nimeusis._Dives is simply the Latin for -a rich man." Our Lord in the parable continues the subject of his discourse against the Pharisees, by shew... [ Continue Reading ]
_named Lazarus_ Lazarus is not from _lo ezer_, -no help," i.e. -forsaken," but from _Eli ezer,_-helped of God," _Gotthilf._It is contracted from the commoner Eleazar. This is the only parable in which a proper name occurs; and the only miracles of which the recipients are named are Mary Magdalene, J... [ Continue Reading ]
_with the crumbs_ The same word as in Matthew 15:27. It is not said that such fragments were refused him. _the dogs_ The only dogs in the East are the wild and neglected Pariah dogs, which run about masterless and are the common scavengers. _came and licked his sores_ The incident is only added to... [ Continue Reading ]
_into Abraham_" _s bosom_ Comp. Luke 13:28. This expression is used as a picture for the banquet of Paradise (comp. Numbers 11:12; John 1:18; John 13:23, and Josephus, _De Maccab._13). _the rich man also died_ "They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave," Job 21:13. _and... [ Continue Reading ]
_in hell_ Rather, IN HADES. Hades, which is represented as containing both Paradise and Gehenna, and is merely the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew _Sheol,_-the grave," is _the intermediate condition of the dead between death and the final judgment._The scene on earth is contrasted with the reversed c... [ Continue Reading ]
_I am tormented_ Rather, I AM SUFFERING PAIN. The verb is not _basanizomai_but _odundmai_, as in Luke 2:48, where it is rendered -sorrowing." _in this flame_ Perhaps meant to indicate the agony of remorseful memories. In Hades no "Lethe the river of oblivion rolls: Her watery labyrinth, whereof w... [ Continue Reading ]
_Son_ Rather, Child. Even in the punishment of Hades he is addressed by a word of tenderness (Luke 15:31; Luke 19:9). _receivedst_ Rather, RECEIVEDST TO THE FULL. _thy good things...evil things_ The -good things'of Dives were such as he had accounted to be absolutely his own, and to be really good... [ Continue Reading ]
_there is a great gulf fixed Change of place_is not a possible way of producing _change of soul._Dives while he still had the heart of Dives would have been in agony even in Abraham's bosom. But 1 Peter 3:19-20 throws a gleam of hope athwart this gulf. It _may_ be (for we can pretend to no certainty... [ Continue Reading ]
_that thou wouldest send him to my father_" _s house_ It is difficult not to see in this request the dawn of a less selfish spirit in the rich man's heart.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I have five brethren_ If there be any special meaning in this detail, the clue to it is now lost. Some have seen in it a reference to the five sons of the High Priest Annas, all of whom succeeded to the Priesthood, Eleazar, Jonathan, Theophilus, Matthias, and the younger Annas, besides his son-in-l... [ Continue Reading ]
_They have Moses and the prophets_ See John 1:45; John 5:39; John 5:46. __... [ Continue Reading ]
_neither will they be persuaded_, _though one rose from the dead_ "We are saved by faithful hearing, not by apparitions," Bengel. This was most remarkably exemplified in the results which followed the raising of another Lazarus (John 12:10) and the resurrection of our Lord Himself (Matthew 28:11-13... [ Continue Reading ]