2. _The Centurion's Servant: Luke 7:1-10_. This was the most striking instance of faith that Jesus had met with up to this time; and what was more astonishing, He was indebted for this surprise to a Gentile. Jesus instantly perceives the deep significance of this unexpected incident, and cautiously... [ Continue Reading ]
_a.The First Deputation._ The Alex. reading ἐπείδη, _since assuredly_, has no meaning. There is something solemn in these expressions: ἐπλήσωσε, _had fulfilled_, and εἰς τὰς ἀκοάς, _in the ears of the people._ The proclamation which had just taken place is given as something complete. The circumst... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 6 b-8. _The Second Deputation._ The centurion, from his house, sees Jesus approaching with His retinue of disciples. The veneration with which this mysterious person inspires him makes him afraid even to receive Him under his roof; he sends, therefore, a second deputation. Strauss sees in this... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 7:9-10. _The Cure._ The severe words respecting the Jews, which in Matthew Jesus adds to the praise bestowed on the centurion's faith, seem to prove that Matthew makes use of a different source of information from Luke's. These words are found, in fact, in Luke in a totally different connectio... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 7:11-12. _The Meeting._ The reading ἐν τῷ ἑξῆς (χρόνῳ), _in the following time_, does not connect this narrative so closely with the preceding as the reading ἐν τῇἑξῆς (ἡμέρᾳ), _the following day._ This is a reason for preferring the former; it is only natural that the more precise should be su... [ Continue Reading ]
3. _The Son of the Widow of Nain: Luke 7:11-17_. The following narrative is one of those which clearly reveal our Lord's tenderness of heart, and the power which human grief exerted over Him. The historical reality of this fact has been objected to on the ground that it is only related by Luke. Crit... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Miracle._ The expression: _the Lord_, is seldom met with in our Gospels except in Luke, and principally in the passages which are peculiar to him: Luke 10:1; Luke 11:39; Luke 12:42; Luke 13:15; Luke 17:5-6; Luke 18:6; Luke 22:31; Luke 22:61 (Bleek). The whole circumstances enumerated... [ Continue Reading ]
VERS. 16, 17. _The Effect produced._ On the feeling of fear, see chap. Luke 5:8. _ A great prophet:_ a greater than John the Baptist himself, a prophet of the first rank, such as Elijah or Moses. The second expression: _God hath visited_..., is more forcible still; it suggests more than it expresse... [ Continue Reading ]
4. _The Deputation from John the Baptist: Luke 7:18-35_. This incident, related only by Matthew (chap. 11) and Luke, and by them differently placed, is in both accounted for in the same manner. The fame of the works of Jesus reached even John. If Luke does not expressly say, as Matthew does, that t... [ Continue Reading ]
1 _st. Luke 7:18-23_: _The Question and the Reply. _ VERS. 18 AND 19. _The Question._ Thus far, according to Holtzmann (pp. 135, 143), Luke had followed the first of his sources, the proto-Mark (_A._); now he leaves it to make use of the second (of which the author of our Matthew has also availed... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Reply._ As Matthew does not mention the miracles which were wrought, according to Luke, in the presence of John's messengers, criticism has suspected the latter of having invented this scene himself. This conclusion is logical if it be admitted that he makes use of Matthew, or of the same docum... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Importance of John's Appearing._ “ _And when the messengers of John were departed, He began to speak unto the people concerning John: What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?_ 25. _But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they whic... [ Continue Reading ]
2 _d. Luke 7:24-35_. _The Discourse of Jesus._ Jesus had a debt to discharge. John had borne striking testimony to Him; He avails Himself of this occasion to pay public homage in His turn to His forerunner. He would not allow this opportunity to pass without doing it, because there was a strict soli... [ Continue Reading ]
VERS. 29 AND 30. _Retrospective Survey of the Ministry of John._ “ _And all the people that heard Him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John._ 30. _But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves_ [_the Pharisees and scribes rendered G... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Application._ “ _Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like?_ 32. _They are like unto children sitting in the market-place, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wep... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Offence._ We are still in that epoch of transition, when the rupture between our Lord and the Pharisees, although already far advanced, was not complete. A member of this party could still invite Him without difficulty. It has been supposed that this invitation was given with a hostile intentio... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Parable._ If this man wanted a proof of the prophetic gift of Jesus, he received it instantly in the following parable, which so exactly meets his thoughts and secret questions. The form of the following conversation is kindly, familiar, and even slightly humorous. It is just the tone of the So... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Application._ Jesus follows an order the inverse of that which He had taken in the parable. In the latter He descends from the cause to the effect, from the debt remitted to the gratitude experienced. In the application, on the contrary, He ascends from the effect to the cause. For the effect... [ Continue Reading ]
_Conclusion._ Bleek has inferred from Luke 7:48, _thy sins are forgiven thee_, that until this moment the woman had not obtained forgiveness. This supposition is excluded by all that precedes. Bleek forgets that ἀφέωνται is a perfect indicating an actual state resulting from an act accomplished at... [ Continue Reading ]