Luke 21:1-4. The Widow's Mite. 1. _he looked up_ The expression seems to shew that He was sitting with downcast eyes, saddened, perhaps, in His human spirit and agitated by the great Denunciation; but this last little incident is -like a rose amid a field of thistles," an act genuinely beautiful in... [ Continue Reading ]
_also_ If the _kai_be genuine, it should perhaps follow the _tina_"some one even a widow." _two mites_ "which make a farthing," Mark 12:42. The _lepton_or _prutah_was the smallest of coins, and the Rabbis did not allow any one to give less than two.... [ Continue Reading ]
_more than they all_ because "one coin out of a little is better than a treasure out of much, and it is not considered how much is given, but how much remains behind." S. Ambrose. See 2 Corinthians 8:12. In the Talmud a High Priest is similarly taught by a vision not to despise a poor woman's offeri... [ Continue Reading ]
_of their abundance_] Rather, OUT OF THEIR OVERPLUS. The essence of charity is self-denial. But in these days most people give - _mites"_out of their vast superfluity, which is no charity at all; and they talk of these offerings as -mites," as though that word excused and even consecrated an offerin... [ Continue Reading ]
5-7. The Doom of the Temple, and the Question about the End. 5. _as some spake_ We learn from the other Evangelists that those who spoke were the Apostles, and that the question was asked as Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives opposite to the Temple, perhaps gazing on it as it shone in the last rays o... [ Continue Reading ]
_As for these things which ye behold_] Rather, THESE THINGS WHICH YE ARE GAZING ON (it is what is called the -pendent nominative"). _there shall not be left one stone upon another_ See on Luke 19:44 and the remarkable passage in _2Es 10:54_, "in the place where the Highest beginneth to shew _His_cit... [ Continue Reading ]
_they asked him_ The questioners were Peter and James and John and Andrew, Mark 13:3. _when...and what sign_ Our Lord leaves the former question unanswered (see on Luke 17:20) and only deals with the latter. This was His gentle method of discouraging irrelevant or inadmissible questions (comp. Luke... [ Continue Reading ]
8-27. Signs of the End. 8. _Take heed that ye be not deceived_ A danger incurred even by the elect. Matthew 24:24. The moral key-notes of this great Discourse of the Last. Things (Eschatology) are Beware! Watch! Endurel Pray! _for many shall come in my name_ "Even now are there many antichrists,... [ Continue Reading ]
_wars and commotions_ The best comment on the _primary_fulfilment of this Discourse is the _Jewish War_of Josephus, and the Annals and History of Tacitus (_Ann._xii. 38, xv. 22, xvi. 13), whose narrative is full of earthquakes, wars, crimes, violences and pollutions, and who describes the period whi... [ Continue Reading ]
_earthquakes_ Tac. _Hist._I. 2. For such physical portents at great crises see Thuc. i. 23; Tac. _Ann._xii. 43, 64, _Hist._i. 56; Liv. xliii. 13, &c. _famines_ Acts 11:28. The original gives the common _paronomasia_ (play on words) _limoi kai loimoi._ pestilences Josephus (_B_. J _._vi. 9, § 3) me... [ Continue Reading ]
_they shall lay their hands on you_, &c. The best comment on the whole verse is found in Acts 4:3; Acts 5:17-41; Acts 6:11-13; Luke 12:2; Luke 16:19-31; 2 Timothy 4:16-17. Comp. John 15:20; John 16:2-3.... [ Continue Reading ]
_for a testimony_ See Mark 13:9. "In nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them _an evident token of perdition_, but _to you of salvation,"_Philippians 1:28. "A manifest token of the righteous judgment of God," 2 Thessalonians 1:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
_not to meditate before_ Luke 12:11; Matthew 10:19-20. The meaning is that they were neither to _be anxious about_the form of their Apologia, not to make it skilfully elaborate.^_... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will give you a mouth_ as in Exodus 4:11-12; Jeremiah 1:9; Isaiah 6:6. God, as Milton says, -sendeth forth His cherubim with the hallowed fire of His altar to touch the lips of whom He will." _shall not be able to gainsay_ See Acts 4:14; Acts 6:1 o. __... [ Continue Reading ]
_ye shall be betrayed_ In consequence of the disunions prophesied in Luke 1:34; Luke 12:53; Matthew 10:21. _some of you_ of the four to whom He was immediately speaking, perhaps all, and certainly two were martyred.... [ Continue Reading ]
_hated of all men_ Luke 2:34; Luke 6:22; John 17:14; 1Pe 4:14; 1 Peter 4:16. "As concerning this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against," Acts 28:22. "We have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes," Acts 24:5. "They speak... [ Continue Reading ]
_not a hair of your head_ for they are "all numbered," Matthew 10:30. The previous verse (Luke 21:16) is of course sufficient to shew that the meaning is _spiritual_here, not literal as in Acts 27:34. _shall...perish_ i.e. not without the special Providence of God, nor without reward, nor before th... [ Continue Reading ]
_In your patience possess ye your souls_ Rather, with the better reading, BY YOUR PATIENCE YE SHALL GAIN YOUR SOULS _OR_ LIVES. Mark 13:13. The need of patience and endurance to the end is very prominently inculcated in the N. T., Rom 5:3; 2 Thessalonians 3:4; Hebrews 10:36; James 1:4, &c. Endurance... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jerusalem compassed with armies_ See on Luke 19:43, and Jos. _B.J._ v. 2, § 6, 12. Some regard this as the "abomination that maketh desolate." __... [ Continue Reading ]
_them which are in Judea_ This expression again most clearly proves what was the _near horizon_of this Prophecy. _flee to the mountains_ The Christians, in consequence of "a certain oracular utterance" (Euseb. _H. E._iii. 5), or an angel-warning (Epiphan. _Haer._i. 123), but more probably in conseq... [ Continue Reading ]
_the days of vengeance_ See Daniel 9:26-27. Josephus again and again calls attention to the abnormal wickedness of the Jews as the cause of the divine retribution which overtook them. In his _Wars of the Jews_he declares that no generation and no city was "so plunged in misery since the foundation o... [ Continue Reading ]
_woe unto them that are with child_ The -woe" is only an expression of pity for them because their flight would be retarded or rendered impossible. _great distress...and wrath_ 1 Thessalonians 2:16, "Wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." Josephus says that, when there were no more to plunder o... [ Continue Reading ]
_fall by the edge of the sword_ Literally, "_mouth of the sword." Genesis 34:26; Genesis 34:1_,100, Genesis 34 Jews are said to have perished in the war and siege. "It seems as though the whole race had appointed a rendezvous for extermination." Renan. _led away captive into all nations_ Josephus s... [ Continue Reading ]
_signs in the sun_, _and in the moon, and in the stars_ The articles should be omitted. These signs are mainly metaphorical the eclipse of nations and the downfall of potentates though there may be literal fulfilments also. The language is that of the ancient prophets, Amos 8:9; Joel 2:30-31; Ezekie... [ Continue Reading ]
_men's hearts failing them_ Literally, _"men fainting."_ on the earth Literally, _"on the habitable world."_ the powers of heaven i.e. the "bright dynasts" (Aesch. _Ag. 6)_the Hosts of the Heavens.... [ Continue Reading ]
_coming in a cloud Metaphorically_in great world crises (Matthew 16:17; Matthew 16:28); _actually_at the Last Coming. Acts 1:11; Matthew 26:64; Revelation 14:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
28. Hope for the Faithful. 28. _look up_ The -earnest expectation" (_apokaradokia_-watching with outstretched neck") of the creature, Romans 8:19; Romans 8:23. This verb _anakuptein_only occurs in Luke 13:11. Comp. Matthew 24:31.... [ Continue Reading ]
29-36. Parable of the Fig-tree. Duty of Watchfulness. 29. _and all the trees_ This is added by St Luke only. The fig-tree would be specially significant to Jewish readers.... [ Continue Reading ]
_32_. _This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled_ This verse has a nearer and a farther meaning. That very generation would not have passed when, 40 years later, the Jewish nation was crushed, and the Mosaic dispensation rendered impossible. But _genea_also means race, and the Jewis... [ Continue Reading ]
_Heaven and earth shall pass away 2 Peter 3:7_; Isaiah 51:6; Psalms 102:26. _but my words shall not pass away_ Rather, MY SAYINGS, my utterances. Isaiah 40:8.... [ Continue Reading ]
_surfeiting_ The headache after drunkenness. Lat. _crapula._ drunkenness Comp. Romans 13:13. Hence the exhortation "be sober," _nepsate,_1 Peter 4:7; 1 Thessalonians 5:6. _cares of this life_ Comp. Matthew 13:22 _._The surfeit of _yesterday;_ drunkenness of _today;_cares for _to-morrow_(Van Ooster... [ Continue Reading ]
_as a snare_ Ecclesiastes 9:12 "as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time." There is the same metaphor in Isaiah 24:17. The common metaphor is "_as a thief_" 1 Thessalonians 5:3; Revelation 3:3; Revelatio... [ Continue Reading ]
_pray always_ Luke 18:1; Ephesians 6:18. Render, WATCH YE AT ALL TIMES, MAKING SUPPLICATION. _accounted worthy_ See on Luke 20:35. Another reading is _"ye may prevail_" (_katischusete)._ to stand before the Son of man "The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment," Psalms 1:5. "Who shall stand when... [ Continue Reading ]
38. How Jesus spent the last Public Days of His Ministry. 37. _in the day time_ Rather, during the days. The notice is retrospective, applying to Palm Sunday, and the Monday and Tuesday in Passion Week. After Tuesday evening He never entered the Temple again. Wednesday and Thursday were spent in a... [ Continue Reading ]
_came early in the morning_ The verb, which does not occur elsewhere in the N.T., means - _resorted to Him at early dawn?_Jeremiah 29:19, -rising up early" (LXX.). - _in the temple_ Comp. Luke 19:47; Acts 5:21. They came for the last time on Tuesday morning. On the Thursday morning, Nisan 13, our L... [ Continue Reading ]