ἐν τῷ ἐλθεῖν, etc.: the indication of place and time is very vague so as to lend plausibility to the suggestion that the introduction is extracted from the parabolic speeches, Luke 14:7-24 (Holtzmann, H. C.). ἀρχόντων τ. φ., the house is described as that of one of the rulers of the Pharisees, an inexact expression, as the Pharisees as such had no rulers, being all on a level. Omitting the article before φαρ. (as in [116]) we might take this word as in apposition and render: one of the rulers, Pharisees; rulers meaning the Sanhedrists, and Pharisees denoting their religious tendency (so Grotius, who therefore thinks the scene was in Jerusalem). σαββάτῳ φαγεῖν ἄρτον : feasting on Sabbath was common among the Jews, ex pietate et religione (Lightfoot), but the dishes were cold, cooked the day before. καὶ, introducing the apodosis, and the main fact the suspicious observation of Jesus by those present at the meal (αὐτοὶ). Altogether a strange situation: Jesus the guest of a great man among the Pharisees, as if held in honour, yet there to be watched rather than treated as a friend; simple-hearted geniality on one side, insincerity on the other.

[116] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

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Old Testament