CHAPTER 15. PARABLES TEACHING THE JOY OF FINDING THINGS LOST. Nothing is gained by insisting anxiously on historical connection here. The introduction of these beautiful parables of grace at this point is a matter of tact rather than of temporal sequence, so far as the conscious motive of the evang... [ Continue Reading ]
_Historic introduction_. ἦσαν ἐγγίζοντες : either were in the act of approaching Jesus at a given time (Meyer), or were in the habit of doing so. The position of αὐτῷ before ἐγγίζοντες in [124] [125] favours the latter (Schanz). On the other hand, it is not improbable that the reference is to the Ca... [ Continue Reading ]
διεγόγγυζον : the διὰ conveys the idea of a general pervasive murmuring. This is probably not an instance illustrating Hermann's remark (_ad Viger._, p. 856) that this preposition in compound verbs often adds the notion of striving (διαπίνειν, _certare bibendo_). οἵ τε φ.: the τε ([126] [127] [128])... [ Continue Reading ]
τὴν παραβ. ταύτην : the phrase covers the second parable (_Lost Coin_) as well as the first. The two are regarded as virtually one, the second a duplicate with slight variations.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The first parable_ (_cf._ Matthew 18:12-14).... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐξ ὑμῶν, what man _of you_. Even the Pharisees and scribes would so act in temporal affairs. Every human being knows the joy of finding things lost. It is only in religion that men lose the scent of simple universal truths. ἑκατὸν πρ.: a _hundred_ a considerable number, making _one_ by comparison in... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐπιτίθησιν, etc., he places the found one on his shoulders; not in affection merely or in the exuberance of his joy, but from necessity. He must carry the sheep. It cannot walk, can only “stand where it stands and lie where it lies” (Koetsveld). This feature, probable in natural life, is true to the... [ Continue Reading ]
συγκαλεῖ : the point here is not the formal invitation of neighbours to sympathise, but the confident expectation that they will. That they do is taken for granted. Sympathy from neighbours and friends of the same occupation, fellow-shepherds, a matter of course in such a case. This trait hit the Ph... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, in heaven, that is, in the heart of God. Heaven is a synonym for God in Luke 15:18; Luke 15:21. ἢ = more than, as if πλέον had preceded, so often in N.T. and in Sept [129] = Hebrew מִן. The comparison in the moral sphere is bold, but the principle holds true there as in the natural sph... [ Continue Reading ]
ἅπτει λ., lights a lamp. The verb used in this sense in N.T. only in Lk. No windows in the dwellings of the poor: a lamp must be lighted for the search, unless indeed there be one always burning on the stand. σαροῖ : colloquial and vulgar for σαίρει, _vide_ on Matthew 12:44. ζητεῖ ἐπιμελῶς : the emp... [ Continue Reading ]
_The second parable_, a pendant to the first, spoken possibly to the Capernaum gathering to bring the experience of joy found in things lost home to the poorest present. As spoken to Pharisees it is intended to exemplify the principle by a lost object as insignificant in value as a publican or a sin... [ Continue Reading ]
συγκαλεῖ : this calling together of friends and neighbours (feminine in this case, τὰς φ. καὶ τὰς γ.) peculiarly natural in the case of a woman; hence perhaps the reading of T.R., συγκαλεῖται, the middle being more subjective. The finding would appeal specially to feminine sympathies, if the lost dr... [ Continue Reading ]
repeats the moral of Luke 15:7, but without comparison which, with a smaller number, would only weaken the effect. ἐνώπιον τῶν ἀγγέλων τ. θ.: the angels may be referred to as the neighbours of God, whose joy they witness and share. Wendt (_L. J._, i., 141) suggests that Luke uses the expression to a... [ Continue Reading ]
_The case put_. δύο υἱου̇ς : two sons of different dispositions here as in Matthew 21:28-31, but there is no further connection between the two parables. There is no reason for regarding Lk.'s parable as an allegorical expansion of Mt.'s _Two Sons_ (Holtzmann in H. C.).... [ Continue Reading ]
_The third parable_, rather an example than a parable illustrating by an imaginary case the joy of recovering a _lost human being_. In this case care is taken to describe what loss means in the sphere of human life. The interest in the lost now appropriately takes the form of eager longing and patie... [ Continue Reading ]
ὁ νεώτερος, the younger, with a certain fitness made to play the foolish part. The position of an elder son presents more motives to steadiness. τὸ ἐπιβάλλον μέρος, the portion _falling_ or _belonging to_, the verb occurs in this sense in late authors (here only in N.T.). The portion of the younger... [ Continue Reading ]
μετʼ οὐ πολλὰς ἡμέρας : to be joined to ἀπεδήμησεν : he went away as soon as possible, when he had had time to realise his property, in haste to escape into wild liberty or licence. μακράν : the farther away the better. ἀσώτως (α pr. and σώζω, here only in N.T.), insalvably; the process of reckless... [ Continue Reading ]
λιμὸς, a famine, an accident fitting into the moral history of the prodigal; not a violent supposition; such correspondences between the physical and moral worlds do occur, and there is a Providence in them. ἰσχυρὰ : the most probable reading if only because λιμὸς is feminine only in Doric and late... [ Continue Reading ]
_The crisis_ : recklessness leads to misery and misery prompts reflection.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐκολλήθη, he attached himself (pass with mid. sense). The citizen of the far country did not want him, it is no time for employing super. fluous hands, but he suffered the wretch to have his way in good-natured pity. βόσκειν χοίρους : the lowest occupation, a poor-paid pagan drudge; the position of... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐπεθύμει, etc., he was fain to fill his belly with the horn-shaped pods of the carob-tree. The point is that he was so poorly fed by his new master (who felt the pinch of hard times, and on whom he had small claim) that to get a good meal of anything, even swine's food, was a treat. γεμίσαι τ. κ., t... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἐλθὼν = either, realising the situation; or, coming to his true self, his sane mind (for the use of this phrase _vide_ Kypke, _Observ._). Perhaps both ideas are intended. He at last understood there was no hope for him there, and, reduced to despair, the human, the filial, the thought of... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀναστὰς : a bright hope gives energy to the starving man; home! Said, done, but the motive is not high. It is simply the last resource of a desperate man. He will go home and confess his fault, and so, he hopes, get at least a hireling's fare. Well to be brought out of that land, under home influenc... [ Continue Reading ]
_Return and reception_. ἦλθεν, etc., he came to his father; no details about the journey, the fact simply stated, the interest now centring in the action of the father, exemplifying the joy of a parent in finding a lost son, which is carefully and exquisitely described in four graphic touches εἶδεν... [ Continue Reading ]
The son repeats his premeditated speech, with or without the last clause; probably with it, as part of a well-conned lesson, repeated half mechanically, yet not insincerely as if to say: I don't deserve this, I came expecting at most a hireling's treatment in food and otherwise, I should be ashamed... [ Continue Reading ]
δούλους : their presence conceivable, the father's running and the meeting noticed and reported by some one, so soon drawing a crowd to the spot, or to meet the two on the way to the house. To them the father gives directions which are his response to the son's proposed self-degradation. He shall no... [ Continue Reading ]
τὸν μόσχον τὸν σιτευτόν : always one fattening for high-tides; could not be used on a better occasion.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐν ἀγρῷ, on the farm; of course there every day, doing his duty, a most correct, exemplary man, only in his wisdom and virtue so cold and merciless towards men of another sort. Being at his work he is ignorant of what has happened: the arrival and what followed. ἐρχόμενος, coming home after the day'... [ Continue Reading ]
_The elder son_, who plays the ignoble part of wet blanket on this glad day, and represents the Pharisees in their chilling attitude towards the mission in behalf of the publicans and sinners.... [ Continue Reading ]
τί ἂν εἴη ταῦτα, not contemptuous, “what all this was about” (Farrar, C. G. T.), but with the puzzled air of a man in the dark and surprised = what does this mean?... [ Continue Reading ]
In simple language the servant briefly explains the situation, showing in his words neither sympathy nor, still less, the reverse, as Hofmann thinks. ὑγιαίνοντα, in good health; home again and well, that is the whole case as he knows it; no thought in his mind of a tragic career culminating in repen... [ Continue Reading ]
ἔριφον, a kid, not to speak of the fatted calf. μετὰ τῶν φίλων μου : he would have been content if there had been _any_ room made for the festive element in his life, with a modest meeting with his own friends, not to speak of a grand family demonstration like this. But no, there was nothing but wor... [ Continue Reading ]
οὗτος : contemptuous, this precious son of yours. μετὰ πορνῶν : hard, merciless judgment; the worst said and in the coarsest way. How did he know? He did _not_ know; had no information, jumped at conclusions. That the manner of his kind, who shirk work and go away to enjoy themselves.... [ Continue Reading ]
The father answers meekly, apologetically, as if conscious that the elder son had some right to complain, and content to justify himself for celebrating the younger son's return with a feast; not a word of retaliation. This is natural in the story, and it also fits well into the aim of the parable,... [ Continue Reading ]