Luke 9:25-27

are the confirmation (for) of this Maschal, and first of all, Luke 9:25-26, of the first proposition. Jesus supposes, Luke 9:25, the act of saving one's own life, accomplished with the most complete success...., amounting to a gain of the whole world. But in this very moment the master of this magnificent domain finds himself condemned to perish! What gain! To draw in a lottery a gallery of pictures..., and at the same time to become blind! The expression ἢ ζημιωθείς, or suffering loss, is difficult. In Matthew and Mark this word, completed by Ψυχήν, corresponds to ἀπολέσας in Luke; but in Luke it must express a different idea. We may understand with it either the world or ἑαυτόν, himself, “suffering the loss of this world already gained,” or (which is more natural) “losing himself altogether (ἀπολέσας), or even merely suffering some small loss in his own person.” It is not necessary that the chastisement should amount to total perdition; the smallest injury to the human personality will be found to be a greater evil than all the advantages accruing from the possession of the whole world.

The losing oneself [the loss of the personality] mentioned in Luke 9:25 consists, according to Luke 9:26 (for), in being denied by Jesus in the day of His glory. The expression, to be ashamed of Jesus, might be applied to the Jews, because fear of their rulers hindered them from declaring themselves for Him; but in this context it is more natural to apply it to disciples whose fidelity gives way before ridicule or violence. The Cantabrigiensis omits the word λόγους, which leads to the sense: “ashamed of me and mine. ” This reading would recommend itself if better supported, and if the word λόγους (my words) was not confirmed by the parallel expression of Mark (Mark 8:35): “for my sake and the gospel's. ” The glory of the royal advent of Jesus will be, first, that of His own personal appearing; next, the glory of God; lastly, the glory of the angels, all these several glories will be mingled together in the incomparable splendour of that great day (2Th 1:7-10). “Thus,” says Gess, “to be worthy of this man is the new and paramount principle. This is no mere spiritualization of the Mosaic law; it is a revolution in the religious and moral intuitions of mankind.”

Ver. 27 is the justification of the promise in Luke 9:24 b (find his life by losing it), as Luke 9:25-26 explained the threatening of 24a. It forms in the three Syn. the conclusion of this discourse, and the transition to the narrative of the transfiguration; but could any of the evangelists have applied to such an exceptional and transitory incident this expression: the coming of the kingdom of Christ (Matthew), or of God (Mark and Luke)?

Meyer thinks that this saying can only apply to the Parousia, to which the preceding verse referred, and which was believed to be very near. But could Jesus have laboured under this misconception (see the refutation of this opinion at chap. 21)? Or has the meaning of His words been altered by tradition? The latter view only would be tenable. Many, urging the difference between Matthew's expression (until they have seen the Son of man coming in His kingdom) and that of Mark (“... the kingdom of God come with power ”) or of Luke (“... the kingdom of God ”), think that the notion of the Parousia has been designedly erased from the text of Matthew by the other two, because they wrote after the fall of Jerusalem. Comp. also the relation between Matthew 24, where the confusion of the two events appears evident, and Luke 21, where it is avoided. But, 1. It is to be observed that this confusion is found in Mark (xiii.) exactly the same as in Matthew (xxiv.). Now, if Mark had corrected Matthew for the reason alleged in the passage before us, how much more would he have corrected him in chap. 13, where it is not a single isolated passage that is in question, but where the subject of the Parousia is the chief matter of discourse! And if the form of expression in Mark is not the result of an intentional correction, but of a simple difference in the mode of transmission, why might it not be the same also with the very similar form that occurs in ? Luke 2. There is a very marked distinction both in Mark and Luke, a sort of gradation and antithesis between this saying and the preceding in Luke by means of the particle δέ, and further: “And I also say that this recompense promised to the faithful confessors shall be enjoyed by some of you before you die;” and in Mark, in a still more striking manner, by the interruption of the discourse and the commencement of a new phrase: “ And He said to them ” (Luke 9:1). So that the idea of the Parousia must be set aside as far as the texts of Mark and Luke are concerned. It may even be doubted whether it is contained in Matthew's expression; comp. Matthew 26:64: “ Henceforth [from now] ye shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven.” The expression henceforth does not permit of our thinking of the Parousia. But this saying is very similar to the one before us. Others apply this promise to the fall of Jerusalem, or to the establishment of the kingdom of God among the heathen, or to the descent of the Holy Spirit. But inasmuch as these events were outward facts, and all who were contemporary with them were witnesses of them, we cannot by this reference explain τινές, some, which announces an exceptional privilege. After all, is the Lord's meaning so difficult to apprehend? Seeing the kingdom of God, in His teaching, is a spiritual fact, in accordance with the inward nature of the kingdom itself; comp. Luke 17:21: “The kingdom of God is within you ” (see the explanation of this passage). For this reason, in order to enjoy this sight, a new sense and a new birth are needed; John 3:3: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This thought satisfactorily explains the present promise as expressed in Luke and Mark. To explain Matthew's expression, we must remember that the work of the Holy Spirit pre-eminently consists in giving us a lively conviction of the exaltation and heavenly glory of Jesus (John 16:14). The τινές, some, are therefore all those then present who should receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and behold with their inward eye those wonderful works of God, which Jesus calls His kingdom, or the kingdom of God. In this way is explained the gradation from Luke 9:26 to Luke 9:27 in Mark and Luke: “Whoever shall give his own life shall find it again, not only at the end of time, but even in this life (at Pentecost).” If this explanation be inadmissible, it must be conceded that this promise is based on a confusion of the fall of Jerusalem with the Parousia; and this would be a proof that our Gospel as well as Matthew's was written before that catastrophe. ᾿Αληθῶς must not be connected with λέγω : Verily I say to you. It should be placed before the verb, as the ἀμήν is in the two other Syn.; and Luke more generally makes use of ἐπ᾿ ἀληθείας (three times in the Gospel, twice in the Acts). It must, then, belong to εἰσίν : “ There are certainly among you. ”

The Alex. reading αὐτοῦ, here, must be preferred to the received reading, ὧδε, which is taken from the other Syn.