6. _The Women who ministered to Jesus: Luke 8:1-3_. By the side of the high religious problems raised by the life of Jesus, there is a question, seldom considered, which nevertheless possesses some interest: How did Jesus find the means of subsistence during the two or three years that His ministry... [ Continue Reading ]
The following passage contains: 1 _st._ The parable (Luke 8:4-8); 2 _d._ The explanations given by Jesus respecting this mode of teaching (Luke 8:9-10); 3 _d._ The exposition of the parable (Luke 8:11-15); 4 _th._ A warning to the apostles as to the course they must pursue in regard to truths which... [ Continue Reading ]
7. _The Parable of the Sower: Luke 8:4-18_. The preceding passage indicated a change in the mode of the Lord's outward life. The following passage indicates a change in His mode of teaching; a crisis, therefore, has been reached. The sequel will make us acquainted with its nature. Before this, Jesus... [ Continue Reading ]
2 _d. Luke 8:9-10_. _The Parables in general._ “ _And His disciples asked Him, saying, What might this parable be?_ 10. _And He said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand._ ”... [ Continue Reading ]
3 _d. Luke 8:11-15_. _The Explanation of the Parable._ The expression, _Now the parable is this_ (Luke 8:11), signifies that the essence of the picture is not in its outward form, but in its idea. The point of resemblance between the word and the seed, is the living power contained in a vehicle whi... [ Continue Reading ]
4 _th. Luke 8:16-18_. _Practical Conclusion._ “ _No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light._ 17. _For nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid... [ Continue Reading ]
8. _Visit of the Mother and Brethren of Jesus: Luke 8:19-21_. We should have been ignorant of the real object of this visit, unless, in this as in several other cases, Mark's narrative had come in to supplement that of the other two. According to Mark, a report had reached the brethren of Jesus that... [ Continue Reading ]
9. _The Stilling of the Storm: Luke 8:22-25_. We come now to a series of narratives which are found united together in the three Syn. (Matthew 8:18 et seq.; Mark 4:35 et seq.): the storm, the demoniac, the daughter of Jairus, together with the woman afflicted with an issue of blood. From the connect... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Encounter._ There are three readings of the name of the inhabitants, and unfortunately they are also found in both the other Syn. Epiphanius mentions the following forms: Γεργεσηνῶν in Mark and Luke (but it is probable that, in the case of the Luke, we should read Γερασηνῶν in this Father); Γαδ... [ Continue Reading ]
10. _The Healing of the Demoniac: Luke 8:26-39_. This portion brings before us a storm no less difficult to still, and a yet more striking victory. Luke and Mark mention only one demoniac; Matthew speaks of two. The hypothesis of a common written source here encounters a difficulty which is very har... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Cure._ To this prayer, in which the victim became involuntarily the advocate of his tormentor, Jesus replies by putting a question: He asks the afflicted man his name. For what purpose? There is nothing so suitable as a calm and simple question to bring a madman to himself. Above all, there is... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Effect produced._ First, on the people of the country; next, on the afflicted man. The owners of the herd dwelt in the city and neighbourhood. They came to convince themselves with their own eyes of the loss of which they had been informed by the herdsmen. On reaching the spot, they beheld a si... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Request._ The term ἀποδέχεσθαι indicates a warm welcome. Mark and Luke mention the age of the young girl, which Matthew omits. The circumstance of her being an only daughter, added by Luke, more fully explains the father's distress. Criticism, of course, does not fail to draw its own conclusi... [ Continue Reading ]
11. _The Raising of Jairus' Daughter: Luke 8:40-56_. In Mark and Luke, the following incident follows immediately on the return from the Decapolis. According to Luke, the multitude which He had left behind Him when He went away had not dispersed; they were expecting Him, and received Him on His land... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Interruption._ The preposition πρός, in προσαναλώσασα, expresses the fact that, _in addition to_ these long sufferings, she now found herself destitute of resources. Mark expresses with a little more force the injury which the physicians had done her. Hitzig and Holtzmann maintain that Luke, b... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Prayer granted._ We may imagine how painful this delay had been for the father of the child. The message, which just at this moment is brought to him, reduces him to despair. Matthew, in his very summary account, omits all these features of the story; and interpreters, like De Wette, who maint... [ Continue Reading ]
The following scene, Luke 8:52-53, took place at the entrance of the sick chamber. The πάντες, _all_, are the servants, neighbours, relations, and professional mourners (αὐληταί, Matthew) assembled in the vestibule, who also wanted to make their way into the chamber. Olshausen, Neander, and others i... [ Continue Reading ]