Luke 19:28-36

1 st. Luke 19:28-36. The Preparations for the Entry.

The connection indicated by the words, while thus speaking, He went, is rather moral than of time: “while speaking thus [of the unbelief of Israel], He nevertheless continued His journey (imperf. ἐπορεύετο) to Jerusalem.” ῎Εμπροσθεν signifies not in advance (εἰς τὸ πρόσθεν), but before [His disciples], at their head. Comp. Mark 10:32: “ They were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them, and they were amazed, and as they followed they were afraid. ”

According to John, while the great body of the caravan pursued its way to Jerusalem, Jesus stopped at Bethany, where a feast was prepared for Him, and where He passed one or even two nights; and it was after this stay that He solemnly entered the capital, where the rumour of His approach had already spread. These circumstances fully explain the scene of Palm Day, which in the synoptical account comes upon us somewhat abruptly. Bleek finds a certain obscurity in Luke's expression: “When He came nigh to Bethphage and Bethany; ” for it is not known how those two localities are related. In Mark (Mark 11:1) the same difficulty (Matthew 21:1 does not speak of Bethany). Add to this that the O. T. nowhere speaks of a village called Bethphage, and that tradition, which indicates the site of Bethany so certainly, says absolutely nothing about that of this hamlet. The Talmud alone mentions Bethphage, and in such a way as to show that this locality was very near Jerusalem, and was even joined to the city. Bethphage is without the walls, it is said; and the bread which is prepared in it is sacred, like that which is made in the city (Bab. Pesachim, 63. 2; Menachoth, 7. 6, etc.). Lightfoot, Renan, Caspari have concluded from these passages that Bethphage was not a hamlet, but a district, the precinct of the city extending eastward as far as the Mount of Olives, and even to Bethany. According to the Rabbins, Jerusalem was to the people what the camp had formerly been to Israel in the wilderness. And as at the great feasts the city could not contain all the pilgrims who came from a distance, and who should strictly have found an abode in the camp (the city), and there celebrated the feast, there was added, they say, to Jerusalem, to make it sufficient, all this district situated on the side of the Mount of Olives, and which bore the name of Bethphage (place of figs). Bethany was the beginning of this district where the pilgrims encamped in a mass; and perhaps its name came from Beth-Chani, place of booths (the merchants' tents set up in the sight of this multitude) (Caspari, p. 163). Nothing could in this case be more exact than the mode of expression used by Luke and Mark: when He came to Bethphage (the sacred district) and to Bethany (the hamlet where this district began). ᾿Ελαιῶν might be taken as the gen. plural of ἐλαία, olive trees (ἐλαιῶν). But in Josephus this word is the name of the mountain itself (ἐλαιών, olive wood); comp. also Acts 1:12. This is the most probable sense in our passage. At Luke 19:37 and Luke 22:39, where Luke uses this word in the first sense, he indicates it by the art. τῶν.

The sending of the two disciples proves the deliberate intention of Jesus to give a certain solemnity to this scene. Till then He had withdrawn from popular expressions of homage; but once at least He wished to show Himself as King Messiah to His people (Luke 19:40). It was a last call addressed by Him to the population of Jerusalem (Luke 19:42). This course, besides, could no longer compromise His work. He knew that in any case death awaited Him in the capital.

John (John 12:14) says simply, Jesus found the young ass, without indicating in what way. But the words which follow, “The disciples remembered that they had done these things unto Him,” Luke 19:16, allude to a doing on the part of the disciples which John himself has not mentioned. His account, therefore, far from contradicting that of the Syn., assumes it as true.

The remark, whereon yet never man sat (Luke 19:30), is in keeping with the kingly and Messianic use which is about to be made of the animal. Comp. Deuteronomy 21:3. Matthew not only mentions the colt, but also the ass. Accompanied by its mother, the animal, though not broken in, would go the more quietly. What are we to think of the critics (Strauss, Volkmar) who allege that, according to Matthew's text, Jesus mounted the two animals at once!

The ease with which Jesus obtains the use of this beast, which does not belong to Him, is another trait of the royal greatness which He thinks good to display on this occasion. Οὕτως, Luke 19:31 (Mark and Matthew, εὐθέως), “ thus; and that will suffice.” Luke and Mark do not cite the prophecy of Zechariah. It was not necessary that every one should understand the symbolical meaning of this scene, and contrast the peaceful beast with the warlike steeds of earthly conquerors.

A new proof of the supernatural knowledge of Jesus, which must not be confounded with omniscience; comp. Luke 22:10; Luke 22:31-34; John 1:49; John 4:17, etc. According to Mark, who loves to describe details, the colt was tied to a door at a crossway (ἄμφοδος). It was no doubt the place where the little path leading to the house of the owners of the ass went off from the highway; or might it be the crossing of two roads, that which Jesus followed (going from east to west), and that which to the present day passes along the crest of the mountain (from north to south)?

The term κύριος, Lord (Luke 19:34), shows the feeling of sovereignty with which Jesus acted. It is probable that He knew the owners. In substituting their garments for the cover which it would have been so easy to procure, the disciples wished to pay homage to Jesus, a fact brought out by the pron. ἑαυτῶν (Luke 19:35). Comp. 2 Kings 9:13.