Luke 15:1
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS] see on Matthew 5:46; Matthew 9:11.... [ Continue Reading ]
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS] see on Matthew 5:46; Matthew 9:11.... [ Continue Reading ]
PARABLES OF THE LOST SHEEP, OF THEM LOST COIN, OF THE PRODIGAL SON 1-7. Parable of the Lost Sheep. See on Matthew 18:12. The first of a series of three parables for the encouragement of penitents. It shows the love of our Saviour for the outcast, the despised, and the criminal classes generally. It... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH NEED NO REPENTANCE] i.e. which think they need no repentance, but really need it more than the publicans and sinners whom they despise. The rabbis divided the just or righteous into two classes, (1) the 'perfectly just,' or 'men of works,' who had never in all their lives committed a single si... [ Continue Reading ]
PIECES] Gk. _drachma_, a coin equivalent in value to the Roman _denarius_ (Matthew 18:28).... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LOST COIN (peculiar to Lk). The last parable set forth the work of Christ in seeking and reclaiming the lost, this one sets forth that of the Church. The woman is the Church; the ten pieces of silver are the human souls in her keeping; the lost piece is a soul that has fallen from grace through... [ Continue Reading ]
FRIENDS] lit. female friends and neighbours.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PRODIGAL SON (peculiar to Lk). 'This parable, like the two preceding, is intended to show what joy there is in heaven at the conversion of sinners, and, therefore, how wrong the Pharisees were to murmur, because Christ consorted with sinners to convert them' (Cornelius a Lapide). The father is G... [ Continue Reading ]
GIVE ME THE PORTION] according to Jewish law, one-half of what the eldest received (Deuteronomy 21:17). He _may_ have had a right to demand his property before his father's death. 'We have here perhaps a survival of that condition of society in which testaments “took effect immediately on execution,... [ Continue Reading ]
TO A CITIZEN] i.e. Satan, or some companion more wicked than himself.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WOULD FAIN HAVE FILLED] i.e. and did so. HUSKS] i.e. the pods of the carob-tree, eaten only by the very poorest people. AND NO MAN GAVE UNTO HIM] food of any kind.... [ Continue Reading ]
HIRED SERVANTS] i.e. imperfect Christians, who perform their duties to God in the spirit of hirelings rather than of sons.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BEST ROBE] or, rather, 'the former robe,' i.e. the state of grace in which he was before his sin. In its Christian application the robe of baptismal innocence, because in baptism we 'put on Christ' as a garment (Galatians 3:27).... [ Continue Reading ]