Luke 4:42-44

5 th. Luke 4:42-44.

The more a servant of God exerts himself in outward activity, the more need there is that he should renew his inward strength by meditation. Jesus also was subject to this law. Every morning He had to obtain afresh whatever was needed for the day; for He lived by the Father (John 6:57). He went out before day from Peter's house, where no doubt He was staying. Instead of, And when it was day, Mark says, While it was still very dark (ἔννυχον λίαν). Instead of, the multitude sought Him, Mark says, Simon and they that were with him followed after Him..., and said unto Him, All men seek Thee. Instead of, I must preach, Mark makes Jesus say, Let us go, that I may preach..., etc. These shades of difference are easily explained, if the substance of these narratives was furnished by oral tradition; but they become childish if they are drawn from the same written source. Holtzmann thinks that Luke generalizes and obscures the narrative of the primitive Mark. The third evangelist would have laboured very uselessly to do that! Bleek succeeds no better in explaining Mark by Luke, than Holtzmann Luke by Mark. If Mark listened to the narrations of Peter, it is intelligible that he should have added to the traditional narrative the few striking features which are peculiar to him, and particularly that which refers to the part taken by Simon on that day. As we read Mark 1:36-37, we fancy we hear Peter telling the story himself, and saying: “And we found Him, and said to Him, All men seek Thee.” These special features, omitted in the general tradition, are wanting in Luke.

The words of Jesus, Luke 4:43, might be explained by a tacit opposition between the ideas of preaching and healing. “If I stayed at Capernaum, I should soon have nothing else to do but work cures, whilst I am sent that I may preach also.” But in this case the verb εὐαγγελίσασθαι should commence the phrase. On the contrary, the emphasis is on the words, to other cities...Jesus opposes to the idea of a stationary ministry at Capernaum, that of itinerant preaching. The term εὐαγγελίσασθαι, to tell news, is very appropriate to express this idea. The message ceases to be news when the preacher remains in the same place. But in this expression of Jesus there is, besides, a contrast between Capernaum, the large city, to which Jesus in no way desires to confine His care, and the smaller towns of the vicinity, designated in Mark by the characteristic term κομποπόλεις, which are equally entrusted to His love.

It is difficult to decide between the two readings, ἀπεστάλην, I have been sent in order to..., and ἀπέσταλμαι, my mission is to...The second perhaps agrees better with the context. A very similar various reading is found in the parallel passage, Mark 1:38 (ἐξῆλθον or ἐξελήλυθα). Mark's term appears to allude to the incarnation; Luke's only refers to the mission of Jesus.

The readings εἰς τὰς συναγωγάς and ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς, Luke 4:44, recur in Mark 1:39. The former appears less regular, which makes it more probable: Jesus carried the preaching into the synagogues.

The absurd reading τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας, which is found in the six principal Alex., should be a caution to blind partisans of this text.