Luke 9:51

First Cycle: The Departure from Galilee.

First Period of the Journey, Luke 9:51 to Luke 13:21.

1. Unfavourable Reception by the Samaritans: Luke 9:51-56.

Ver. 51. Introduction.

The style of this verse is peculiarly impressive and solemn. The expressions ἐγένετο... καὶ ἐστήριξε πρόσωπον στηρίζειν betray an Aramaic original. The verb συμπληροῦσθαι, to be fulfilled, means here, as in Acts 2:1, the gradual filling up of a series of days which form a complete period, and extend to a goal determined beforehand; comp. πλησθῆναι, Luke 2:21-22. The period here is that of the days of the departing of Jesus from this world; it began with the first announcement of His sufferings, and it had now reached one of its marked epochs, the departure from Galilee. The goal is the ἀνάληψις, the perfecting of Jesus; this expression combines the two ideas of His death and ascension. Those two events, of which the one is the complement of the other, form together the consummation of His return to the Father; comp. the same combination of ideas in ὑψωθῆναι and ὑπάγειν, John 3:14; John 8:28; John 12:32; John 13:3. For the plural ἡμέραι, Luke 1:21-22.

Wieseler (in his Synopsis) formerly gave to ἀνάληψις the meaning of good reception: “When the time of the favourable reception which He had found in Galilee was coming to an end.” But as this meaning would evidently require some such definition as ἐν Γαλιλαίᾳ, he now understands by ἡμέρ. ἀναλ., “the days during which Jesus should have been received by men” (Beiträge, etc., p. 127 et seq.). But how can we give to a substantive the meaning of a verb in the conditional? and besides, comp. Acts 1:2, which fixes the meaning of ἀνάληψις. On the other hand, when Meyer concludes from the passage in Acts that the ascension only is here referred to, he forgets the difference of context. In Acts 1 this meaning is evident, the death being already a past event; but here it is difficult to believe that the two events yet to come, by which the departure of Jesus to heaven (ἀνάληψις) was to be consummated, are not comprehended in this word.

The pronoun αὐτός, by emphasizing the subject, brings into prominence the free and deliberate character of this departure. On the καί of the apodosis, see vol. i. pp. 133, 136. This καί (and He also) recalls the correspondence between the divine decree implied in the term συμπληροῦσθαι, to be fulfilled, and the free will with which Jesus conforms thereto. The phrase πρόσωπον στηρίζειν corresponds in the LXX. to שׂוּם פָּנִים (Jer 21:10) or נָתַן פָּנִים (Eze 6:2), dresser sa face vers (Ostervald), to give one's view an invariable direction towards an end. The expression supposes a fear to be surmounted, an energy to be displayed.

On the prepositional phrase to Jerusalem, comp. Luke 9:31 and Mark 10:32: “And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and as they followed they were afraid.” To start for Jerusalem is to march to His death; Jesus knows it; the disciples have a presentiment of danger. This confirms our interpretation of ἀνάληψις.