Luke 4:23-27

The Colloquy. “And He said to them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself; whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. 24 And He said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. 25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; 26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. 27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. ” The meaning surely, which πάντως often has, would be of no force here; it rather means wholly, nothing less than: “The question which you have just put to me is only the first symptom of unbelief. From surprise you will pass to derision. Thus you will quickly arrive at the end of the path in which you have just taken the first step.”

The term παραβολή, parable, denotes any kind of figurative discourse, whether a complete narrative or a short sentence, couched in an image, like proverbs. Jesus had just attributed to Himself, applying Isaiah's words, the office of a restorer of humanity. He had described the various ills from which His hearers were suffering, and directed their attention to Himself as the physician sent to heal them. This is what the proverb cited refers to. (Comp. ἰατρός, a physician, with ἰάσασθαι, to heal, Luke 4:18.) Thus: “You are going even to turn to ridicule what you have just heard, and to say to me, Thou who pretendest to save humanity from its misery, begin by delivering thyself from thine own.” But, as thus explained, the proverb does not appear to be in connection with the following proposition. Several interpreters have proposed another explanation: “Before attempting to save mankind, raise thy native town from its obscurity, and make it famous by miracles like those which thou must have wrought at Capernaum.” But it is very forced to explain the word thyself in the sense of thy native town. The connection of this proverb with the following words is explained, if we see in the latter a suggestion of the means by which Jesus may yet prevent the contempt with which He is threatened in His own country: “In order that we may acknowledge you to be what you claim, the Saviour of the people, do here some such miracle as it is said thou hast done at Capernaum.” This speech betrays an ironical doubt respecting those marvellous things which were attributed to Him.

It appears from this passage, as well as from Matthew 13:58 and Mark 6:5, that Jesus performed no miracles at Nazareth. It is even said that “ He could do no miracle there.” It was a moral impossibility, as in other similar instances (Luke 11:16; Luke 11:29; Luke 23:35). It proceeded from the spirit in which the demand was made: it was a miracle of ostentation that was required of Him (the third temptation in the desert); and it was what He could not grant, without doing what the Father had not shown Him (John 5:19; John 5:30).

The allusion to the miracles at Capernaum creates surprise, because none of them have been recorded; and modern interpreters generally find in these words a proof of the chronological disorder which here prevails in Luke's narrative. He must have placed this visit much too soon. This conclusion, however, is not so certain as it appears. The expression, in the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:14), contains by implication, as we have seen, an indication of miracles wrought in those early days, and amongst these we must certainly rank the miracle at the marriage feast at Cana (John 2). This miracle was followed by a residence at Capernaum (John 2:12), during which Jesus may have performed some miraculous works; and it was not till after that that He preached publicly at Nazareth. These early miracles have been effaced by subsequent events, as that at Cana would have been, if John had not rescued it from oblivion. If this is so, the twenty-third verse, which seems at first sight not to harmonize with the previous narrative, would just prove with what fidelity Luke has preserved the purport of the sources whence he drew his information. John in the same way makes allusion (Luke 2:12) to miracles which he has not recorded.

The preposition εἰς before the name Capernaum appears to be the true reading: “done at and in favour of Capernaum.”

The δέ (Luke 4:24) indicates opposition. “So far from seeking to obtain your confidence by a display of miracles, I shall rather accept, as a prophet, the fate of all the prophets.” The proverbial saying here cited by Jesus is found in the scene Matthew 13 and Mark 6, and, with some slight modification, in John 4:44. None have more difficulty in discerning the exceptional character of an extraordinary man than those who have long lived with him on terms of familiarity.

The δέ (Luke 4:25) is again of an adversative force: If by your unbelief you prevent my being your physician, there are others whom you will not prevent me from healing. The expression verily announces something important; and it is evident that the application of the saying, Luke 4:24, in the mind of Jesus, has a much wider reference than the instance before Him; Nazareth becomes, in His view, a type of unbelieving Israel. This is proved by the two following examples, which refer to the relations of Israel with the heathen.

He speaks of a famine of three years and a half. From the expressions of the O. T., during these years (1 Kings 17:1), and the third year (Luke 18:1), we can only in strictness infer a drought of two years and a half. But as this same figure, three years and a half, is found in James 5:17, it was probably a tradition of the Jewish schools. The reasoning would be this: The famine must have lasted for a certain time after the drought. There would be a desire also to make out the number which, ever since the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, had become the emblem of times of national calamity. The expression, all the land, denotes the land of Israel, with the known countries bordering upon it. The Alex. reading Σιδωνίας, the territory of Sidon, may be a correction derived from the LXX. The reading Σιδῶνος, the city of Sidon itself, makes the capital the centre on which the surrounding cities depend.

The somewhat incorrect use of εἰ μή, except, is explained by the application of this restriction not to the special notion of Israelitish widowhood, but to the idea of widowhood in general; the same remark applies to Luke 4:27; Matthew 12:4; Galatians 1:19, and other passages.

The second example (Luke 4:27) is taken from 2 Kings 5:14. The passage 2 Kings 7:3 and some others prove how very prevalent leprosy was in Israel at this time. The prophecy contained in these examples is being fulfilled to this hour: Israel is deprived of the works of grace and marvels of healing which the Messiah works among the Gentiles.