Luke 8:49-56

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 maintain that this Gospel was the source of the other two, are obliged to regard the details in Mark and Luke as just so many embellishments of their own invention! The present πίστευε, in the received reading, signifies: “Only persevere, without fainting, in the faith which thou hast shown thus far.” Some Alex. read the aor. πιστεῦσον : “Only exercise faith! Make a new effort in view of the unexpected difficulty which has arisen.” This second meaning seems to agree better with the position of μόνον, only, before the verb. Perhaps the other reading is taken from Mark, where all the authorities read πίστευε.

The reading of the T. R., εἰσελθών, having entered, Luke 8:51, is not nearly so well supported as the reading ἐλθών, having come. But with either reading there is a distinction observed between the arrival (ἐλθών) or entrance (εἰσελθών) into the house and the entrance into the chamber of the sick girl, to which the εἰσελθεῖν which follows refers: “He suffered no man to go in. ” What obliges us to give this sense to this infinitive, is the mention of the mother amongst the persons excepted from the prohibition; for if here also entrance into the house was in question, this would suppose that the mother had left it, which is scarcely probable, when her daughter had only just expired. Jesus' object in only admitting just the indispensable witnesses into the room, was to diminish as far as possible the fame of the work He was about to perform. As to the three apostles, it was necessary that they should be present, in order that they might be able afterwards to testify to what was done.