Luke 13:1-9

10. Conversation on two Events of the Day: Luke 13:1-9.

Luke does not say that the following event took place immediately after the preceding, but only in a general way, ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ καιρῷ (Luke 13:1), in the same circumstances. The three following sayings (Luke 13:1-9) breathe the same engagedness of mind as filled the preceding discourses. The external situation also is the same. Jesus is moving slowly on, taking advantage of every occasion which presents itself to direct the hearts of men to things above.

The necessity of conversion is that of which Jesus here reminds His hearers; in Luke 12:54 et seq. He had rather preached its urgency.

1 st. Luke 13:1-3. The Galileans massacred by Pilate.

Josephus does not mention the event to which the following words relate. The Galileans were somewhat restless; conflicts with the Roman garrison easily arose. In the expression, mingling their blood with that of the sacrifice, there is a certain poetical emphasis which often characterizes popular accounts.

The impf. παρῆσαν signifies “they were there relating.” Jesus with His piercing eye immediately discerns the prophetical significance of the fact. The carnage due to Pilate's sword is only the prelude to that which will soon be carried out by the Roman army throughout all the Holy Land, and especially in the temple, the last asylum of the nation. Was not all that remained of the Galilean people actually assembled forty years later in the temple, expiating their national impenitence under the stroke of Titus? The word likewise (Luke 13:3) may therefore be taken literally. A serious, individual, and national conversion at the call of Jesus could alone have prevented that catastrophe.

2 d. Luke 13:4-5. The Persons buried by the Tower of Siloam.

The disaster which has been related recalls another to His mind, which He mentions spontaneously, and which He applies specially to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The aqueduct and pool of Siloam are situated where the valley of Tyropeon, between Sion and Moriah, opens into that of Jehoshaphat.

Forty years later, the fall of the houses of the burning capital justified this warning not less strikingly.

When a disaster comes upon an individual, there is a disposition among men to seek the cause of it in some special guiltiness attaching to the victim. Jesus turns his hearers back to human guilt in general, and their own in particular; and from that, which to the pharisaic heart is an occasion of proud confidence, He derives a motive to humiliation and conversion, an example of what was called, Luke 12:57, judging what is right.

3 d. Luke 13:6-9. The Time of Grace.

Here again we have the formula ἔλεγε δέ, which announces the true and final word on the situation. (See at Luke 12:54.)

A vineyard forms an excellent soil for fruit trees. As usually, the fig-tree represents Israel. God is the owner, Jesus the vine-dresser who intercedes. ῾Ινατί (γένηται), To what end? Καί, moreover; not only is it useless itself, but it also renders the ground useless. Bengel, Wieseler, Weizsäcker find an allusion in the three years to the period of the ministry of Jesus which was already past, and so draw from this parable chronological conclusions. Altogether without reason; for such details ought to be explained by their relation to the general figure of the parable of which they form a part, and not by circumstances wholly foreign to the description. In the figure chosen by Jesus, three years are the time of a full trial, at the end of which the inference of incurable sterility may be drawn. Those three years, therefore, represent the time of grace granted to Israel; and the last year, added at the request of the gardener, the forty years' respite between the Friday of the crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem, which were owing to that prayer of Jesus: “ Father, forgive them. ”

The MSS. have the two forms κόπρια, from κόπριον, and κοπρίαν, from κοπρία. The proposition κἂν μέν...is elliptical, as often in classical Greek; we must understand καλῶς ἔχει. The Alex., by placing εἰς τὸ μέλλον before εἰ δὲ μήγε, probably wished to escape this ellipsis: “If it bear fruit, let it for the future [live].” The extraordinary pains of the gardener bestowed on this sickly tree represent the marvels of love which Jesus shall display in His death and resurrection, then at Pentecost and by means of the apostolic preaching, in order to rescue the people from their impenitence. This parable gives Israel to know that its life is only a respite, and that this respite is nearing its end. Perhaps Paul makes an allusion to this saying when he admonishes Gentile Christians, the branches of the wild olive, saying to them, ἐπεὶ καὶ σὺ ἐκκοπήσῃ (Romans 11:22).

Holtzmann acknowledges the historical truth of the introduction, Luke 13:1. He ascribes it to the Logia, like everything which he finds true in the introductions of Luke. But if this piece was in Λ., of which Matthew made use, how has he omitted it altogether?