FORASMUCH AS MANY HAVE TAKEN IN HAND. — On the general bearing of this passage on the questions connected with the authorship and plan of the Gospel, see the _Introduction._ Here we note (1), what is visible in the English, but is yet more conspicuous in the Greek, the finished structure of the sent... [ Continue Reading ]
EVEN AS THEY DELIVERED THEM UNTO US. — There is something noticeable in the candour with which the writer disclaims the character of an eyewitness. The word “delivered” is the same as that used by St. Paul when he speaks of the history of the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23) and of the Resurrecti... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVING HAD PERFECT UNDERSTANDING OF ALL THINGS. — Better, _having traced_ (or _investigated_)_ all things from their source._ The verb used is one which implies following the course of events step by step. The adverb which follows exactly answers to what we call the _origines_ of any great movement.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREIN THOU HAST BEEN INSTRUCTED. — The verb used is that from which are formed the words “catechise,” “catechumen.” &c., and implies oral teaching — in its later sense, teaching preparatory to baptism. The passage is important as showing that such instruction mainly turned on the facts of our Lord... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE WAS IN THE DAYS OF HEROD. — The writer begins, as he had promised, with the first facts in the divine order of events. The two Chapter s that follow have every appearance of having been based originally on an independent document, and that probably a Hebrew one. On its probable sources, see _I... [ Continue Reading ]
COMMANDMENTS AND ORDINANCES. — The former word covered all the moral laws of the Pentateuch, the latter (as in Hebrews 9:1), its outward and ceremonial rules.... [ Continue Reading ]
WELL STRICKEN IN YEARS. — Literally, _far advanced in their days. _... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE ORDER OF HIS COURSE. — This was settled by rotation. Attempts have been made by reckoning back from the date of the destruction of the Temple, when it is known that the “course” of Joiarib was ministering on the ninth day of the Jewish month Ab, to fix the precise date of the events here narr... [ Continue Reading ]
(9)HIS LOT WAS TO BURN INCENSE. — The order of the courses was, as has been said, one of rotation. The distribution of functions during the week was determined by lot. That of offering incense, symbolising, as it did, the priestly work of presenting the prayers of the people, and joining his own wit... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WHOLE MULTITUDE. — Knowing as we do from this Gospel, what hopes were cherished by devout hearts at this time, we may well believe that the prayers of the people, no less than those of the priest, turned towards the manifestation of the kingdom of God. In that crowd, we may well believe, were th... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ALTAR OF INCENSE. — The altar stood just in front of the veil that divided the outer sanctuary from the Holy of Holies. It was made of shittim wood, and overlaid with gold, both symbols of incorruption (Exodus 30:1; Exodus 40:5; Exodus 40:26). Its position connected it so closely with the innerm... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WAS TROUBLED. — It lies in the nature of the case that during all the long years of Zachariah’s ministration, he had seen no such manifestation. As far as we may reason from the analogy of other angelic appearances, the outward form was that of a “young man clothed in white linen,” or in “bright... [ Continue Reading ]
THY PRAYER IS HEARD. — The words imply a prayer on the part of Zacharias, not that he might have a son (that hope appears to have died out long before), but that the Kingdom of God might come. Praying for this he receives more than he asks, and the long yearning of his soul for a son who might bear... [ Continue Reading ]
MANY SHALL REJOICE. — The words point to what had been the priest’s prayer. He had been seeking the joy of many rather than his own, and now the one was to be fruitful in the other.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SHALL DRINK NEITHER WINE NOR STRONG DRINK. — The child now promised was to grow up as a Nazarite (Numbers 6:4), and to keep that vow all his life, as the representative of the ascetic, the “separated,” form (this is the meaning of the term) of a consecrated life. He was to be what Samson had bee... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL HE TURN TO THE LORD THEIR GOD. — The opening words of the message of the New Covenant spring out of the closing words of the last of the prophets (Malachi 4:6), and point to the revival of the Elijah ministry, which is more definitely announced in the next verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
TO THE WISDOM OF THE JUST. — The margin, _by the wisdom,_ is undoubtedly the right rendering.... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM GABRIEL. — No names of angels appear in the Old Testament till after the Babylonian Exile. Then we have Gabriel (= “the strong one — or the hero — of God”), in Daniel 8:16; Michael (= “who is like unto God?”), in Daniel 10:21; Daniel 12:1; Raphael (= “the healer of God” — i.e., the divine heale... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, THOU SHALT BE DUMB. — The question was answered, the demand for a sign granted, but the demand had implied a want of faith, and therefore the sign took the form of a penalty. The vision and the words of the angel, harmonising as they did with all Zechariah’s previous convictions, ought to ha... [ Continue Reading ]
A VISION. — The word is used as distinguished from “dream,” to imply that what had been witnessed had been seen with the waking sense. The look of awe, the strange gestures, the unwonted silence, all showed that he had come under the influence of some supernatural power. HE BECKONED UNTO THEM. — Th... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DAYS OF HIS MINISTRATION. — The word used for “ministration” conveys, like the ministering spirits” of Hebrews 1:14, the idea of liturgical service. The “days” were, according to the usual order of the Temple, from Sabbath to Sabbath (2 Kings 11:5).... [ Continue Reading ]
TO TAKE AWAY MY REPROACH AMONG MEN. — The words express in almost their strongest form the Jewish feeling as to maternity. To have no children was more than a misfortune. It seemed to imply some secret sin which God was punishing with barrenness. So we have Rachel’s cry, “Give me children, or else I... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IN THE SIXTH MONTH. — The time is obviously reckoned from the commencement of the period specified in Luke 1:24. A CITY OF GALILEE, NAMED NAZARETH. — The town so named (now _en-Nazirah_) was situated in a valley among the hills that rise to a height of about 500 feet on the north of the Plain of... [ Continue Reading ]
TO A VIRGIN ESPOUSED TO A MAN WHOSE NAME WAS JOSEPH. — Of the parentage of Mary the canonical Gospels tell us nothing, and the legends of the apocryphal have no claim to credit. That her mother’s name was Anna, that she surpassed the maidens of her own age in wisdom, that she went as a child into th... [ Continue Reading ]
HIGHLY FAVOURED. — The verb is the same as that which is translated, “hath made us accepted “in Ephesians 1:6; and, on the whole, this, which is expressed in one of the marginal readings, seems the truest. The _plena gratiâ_ of the Vulgate has no warrant in the meaning of the word. THE LORD IS WITH... [ Continue Reading ]
SHE WAS TROUBLED AT HIS SAYING. — The same word is used as had been used of Zacharias. With Mary, as with him, the first feeling was one of natural terror. Who was the strange visitor, and what did the strange greeting mean?... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST FOUND FAVOUR WITH GOD. — The noun is the same as that elsewhere translated “grace,” but the latter word, though fit enough in itself, has become so associated with the technicalities of theology that it is better, in this place, to retain “favour.”... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, THOU SHALT CONCEIVE. — St. Luke does not refer to the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, but it is clear from Mary’s answer that she understood the words of the angel in the sense which St. Matthew gives to those of the prophet. What perplexed her was the reference to the conception and the birth in a... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL BE CALLED THE SON OF THE HIGHEST. — It is noticeable that this name applied to our Lord by the angel, appears afterwards as uttered by the demoniacs (Mark 5:7). On the history of the name, see Note on Mark 5:7. THE THRONE OF HIS FATHER DAVID. — The words seem at first to suggest the thought th... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL REIGN OVER THE HOUSE OF JACOB FOR EVER. — Here, again, the apparent promise is that of a kingdom restored to Israel such as the disciples expected even after the Resurrection (Acts 1:6). It needed to be interpreted by events before men could see that it was fulfilled in the history of Chris... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW SHALL THIS BE? — The question of the Virgin is not altogether of the same nature as that of Zacharias in Luke 1:18. He asks by what sign he shall know that the words were true which told him of a son in his old age. Mary is told of a far greater marvel, for her question shows that she understood... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HOLY GHOST SHALL COME UPON THEE. — See Note on Luke 1:15. Here, however, the context would suggest to one familiar with the sacred writings, another aspect of the Spirit’s work, as quickening the dead chaos into life (Genesis 1:2), as being the source of life to all creation (Psalms 104:30). TH... [ Continue Reading ]
THY COUSIN ELISABETH. — See Notes on Luke 1:27; Luke 1:32. Taking the word in its usual sense, it would imply that either the father or the mother of Mary had been of the house of Aaron, or that the mother of Elizabeth had been of the house of David.... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD THE HANDMAID OF THE LORD... — The words seem to show a kind of half-consciousness that the lot which she thus accepts might bring with it unknown sufferings, as well as untold blessedness. She shrinks, as it were, from the awfulness of the position thus assigned to her, but she can say, as he... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HILL COUNTRY... A CITY OF JUDA. — The description is too vague to be identified with any certainty. The form of the proper noun is the same as that in “Bethlehem, of the land of Juda,” in Matthew 2:6. The city may have been one of those assigned to the priests within the limits of the tribe of J... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SALUTATION OF MARY. — The words of the greeting were, we may believe, the usual formula, “Peace be with thee,” or “The Lord be with thee,” possibly united with some special words of gratulation on what she had heard from the angel. ELISABETH WAS FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST. — What had been predi... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED ART THOU AMONG WOMEN. — The language, like that of most of the utterances in these Chapter s, is taken from the poetry of the older Scriptures, but there is a singular contrast between its application there to the murderess Jael (Judges 5:24), and here to the mother of the Lord.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHENCE IS THIS TO ME...? — The sudden inspiration bids Elizabeth, rising above all lower thoughts, to recognise that the child of Mary would be also the Son of the Highest. The contrast leaves no room for doubt that she used the word “Lord” in its highest sense. “Great “as her own son was to be (Luk... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED IS SHE THAT BELIEVED. — The two renderings, “for there shall be,” and “that there shall be,” are equally tenable grammatically. On internal grounds there seems a balance in favour of the latter, as the other interpretation appears to make the fulfilment of the promise dependent upon the Virg... [ Continue Reading ]
MY SOUL DOTH MAGNIFY THE LORD. — We come to the first of the great canticles recorded by St. Luke, which, since the time of Cæsarius of Arles (A.D. 540), who first introduced them into public worship, have formed part of the hymnal treasures of Western Christendom. We may think of the Virgin as havi... [ Continue Reading ]
IN GOD MY SAVIOUR. — We may well believe that this choice of the name was determined by the meaning of the name, implying God’s work of salvation, which she had been told was to be given to her Son.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LOW ESTATE OF HIS HANDMAIDEN. — Note the recurrence of the word that had been used in Luke 1:37, as expressing the character which she was now ready to accept, whatever it might involve. ALL GENERATIONS SHALL CALL ME BLESSED. — The words have, of course, been partly instrumental in bringing abo... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS MERCY IS ON THEM THAT FEAR HIM. — The words, as read by those for whom St. Luke wrote, would seem almost to foreshadow the Gospel of the Apostle of the Gentiles. Those that “feared God” were to be found not only among the children of Abraham, but also among “every nation” (Acts 10:2; Acts 10:35)... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH SHEWED STRENGTH. — Literally, _He wrought strength._ Here the parallelism with 1 Samuel 2:3 becomes very close. Of whom the speaker thought as among the “proud,” we cannot know. They may have been the potentates of the world in which she lived, Herod and the Emperor of Rome. They may have be... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MIGHTY. — The word (that from which we get our English “dynasty”) is applied to the eunuch “of great authority” under Candace, in Acts 8:27, and is used as a divine name in “the blessed and only Potentate” of 1 Timothy 6:15. Here it is used generally of all human rulers. FROM THEIR SEATS. — Bet... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH FILLED THE HUNGRY. — It is interesting to note the manner in which the song of the Virgin anticipates the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Plain as reported by St. Luke (Luke 6:21). The words, like those of the beatitudes, have both their literal and their spiritual fulfilments. Both those wh... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH HOLPEN HIS SERVANT ISRAEL. — Up to this point the hymn has been one of personal thanks-giving. Now we find that all the soul of the maiden of Nazareth is with her people. Her joy in the “great things “which God has done for her rests on the fact that they are “great things “for Israel also.... [ Continue Reading ]
AS HE SPAKE TO OUR FATHERS. — As the sentence stands in English, the words “Abraham and his seed” seem in apposition with “forefathers,” and to be added as explaining it. In the Greek, however, they are in a different connection, and belong to what had gone before, the construction being as follows:... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MARY ABODE WITH HER ABOUT THREE MONTHS. — This brings the time so close to the birth of the Baptist that we might well deem it likely that the Virgin waited for it. On the other hand, the next verse seems almost to imply her previous departure. In any case, we may think of the three months as a... [ Continue Reading ]
HER NEIGHBOURS AND HER COUSINS. — Better, _her kindred,_ as including a wider range of relations than that which comes within our definition of cousinship. The words imply that they had heard something of the vision in the Temple, and of what had been foretold of the future greatness of the child th... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY CAME TO CIRCUMCISE THE CHILD. — The day of circumcision, as the admission of the child into God’s covenant with his people, was, like the day of the baptism of infants among Christians, one on which relatives were invited to be present as witnesses, and was commonly followed by a feast. It was... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT SO; BUT HE SHALL BE CALLED JOHN. — It is obvious from what follows that the writing-tablet had been in frequent use, and in this way the husband must have told the wife of the name which had been given by the angel.... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE IS NONE OF THY KINDRED... — The fact is not without interest, as probably showing that Zacharias did not come within the circle of those related to the Sadducean high priests, among whom (some thirty years later, it is true) we find that name (Acts 4:6; Acts 5:17).... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY MADE SIGNS TO HIS FATHER. — It seems probable — almost, indeed, certain — from this, that Zacharias was deprived of the power of hearing as well as speech, and had passed into the condition of one who was naturally a deaf mute.... [ Continue Reading ]
A WRITING TABLE. — The tablets in common use at this time throughout the Roman empire were commonly of wood, covered with a thin coat of wax, on which men wrote with the sharp point which has left its traces in our language, in the word “style,” in its literal and figurative senses. HIS NAME IS JOH... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS TONGUE LOOSED. — The verb is supplied by the translators because the one previously used applied strictly only to the mouth. HE SPAKE, AND PRAISED GOD. — Probably, in substance, if not in words, as in the hymn that follows. The insertion of the two verses that follow seems to imply that some in... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THE HILL COUNTRY OF JUDÆA. — The district so designated included the mountain plateau to the south of Jerusalem, which reaches its highest point at Hebron. (See Note on Luke 1:39.) The whole verse describes the gradual spread of the report of the events from the immediate neighbourhood to the wi... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT MANNER OF CHILD SHALL THIS BE! — Better, _what shall this child be!_ The question was not, what kind of child He should be, but what the child would grow to. AND THE HAND OF THE LORD WAS WITH HIM. — Some good MSS. give, “for the hand of the Lord,” as giving the reason for the previous question.... [ Continue Reading ]
WAS FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST, AND PROPHESIED. — The latter word appears to be used in its wider sense of an inspired utterance of praise (as, _e.g.,_ in 1 Samuel 19:20; 1 Corinthians 14:24). The hymn that follows appears as the report, written, probably, by Zachariah himself, of the praises that h... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED BE THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL. — The whole hymn is, like the _Magnificat,_ pre-eminently Hebrew in character, almost every phrase having its counterpart in Psalm or Prophet; and, like it, has come to take a prominent place in the devotions of the western Churches. Its first appearance, as so use... [ Continue Reading ]
HATH RAISED UP AN HORN OF SALVATION. — The symbolism of the _horn_ comes from Psalms 132:17, where it is used of the representative of the House of David, and answers to the “Anointed” of the other clause of the verse. It originated obviously in the impression made by the horns of the bull or stag,... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS HOLY PROPHETS, WHICH HAVE BEEN SINCE THE WORLD BEGAN. — The words were probably more than a lofty paraphrase of the more usual language, “of old time,” “of ancient days,” and imply a reference to the great first Gospel, as it has been called, of Genesis 3:15, as well as to those made to Abraham,... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT WE SHOULD BE SAVED FROM OUR ENEMIES. — Literally, _salvation from our enemies,_ in apposition with “the horn of salvation” of Luke 1:69. The “enemies” present to the thoughts of Zacharias may have been the Roman conquerors of Judæa; the Idumæan House of Herod may have been among “those who hate... [ Continue Reading ]
TO PERFORM THE MERCY. — The verse has been thought, and with apparent reason, to contain a reference, after the manner of the ancient prophets (comp. Isaiah 8:3; Micah 1:10), to the name of the speaker, of his wife, and of his child. In “performing mercy,” we find an allusion to John or Jochanan (=... [ Continue Reading ]
THE OATH. — The noun is in apposition to the “covenant” of the preceding verse, though not grammatically in the same case with it.... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT HE WOULD GRANT UNTO US ... — The form of the Greek indicates even more definitely than the English that this was the end to which the “covenant” and the “oath” had all along been pointing. MIGHT SERVE HIM WITHOUT FEAR. — The service is that of worship as well as obedience. This was the end for... [ Continue Reading ]
IN HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS. — The same combination is found, though in an inverted order, in Ephesians 4:24. “Holiness” has special reference to man’s relations to God; “justice” to those which connect him with his fellow men; but, like all such words, they more or less overlap.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU, CHILD, SHALT BE CALLED THE PROPHET OF THE HIGHEST. — Note the recurrence of the same divine name that had appeared in Luke 1:32; Luke 1:35. THOU SHALT GO BEFORE THE FACE OF THE LORD. — The verse is, as it were, an echo of two great prophecies, combining the “_goi_ng before Jehovah” of Malachi... [ Continue Reading ]
TO GIVE KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION. — This, as the form of the Greek verb shows, was to be the object of the Baptist’s mission. Men had lost sight of the true nature of salvation. They were wrapt in dreams of deliverance from outward enemies, and needed to be taught that it consisted in forgiveness for... [ Continue Reading ]
THROUGH THE TENDER MERCY. — Literally, _on account of the bowels of mercy of our God._ After this manner the Jews spoke of what we should call _“_the heart” of God. The word was a favourite one with St. Paul, as in the Greek of 2 Corinthians 7:15; Philippians 1:8; Philippians 2:1; Colossians 3:12. T... [ Continue Reading ]
TO GIVE LIGHT TO THEM THAT SIT IN DARKNESS. — The words are an echo of those of Isaiah 9:2, which we have already met with in Matthew 4:16, where see Note. Here they carry on the thought of the sunrise lighting up the path of those who had sat all night long in the dark ravine, and whose feet were n... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE CHILD GREW. — We have no materials for filling up this brief outline of the thirty years that followed in the Baptist’s life. The usual Jewish education, the observance of the Nazarite vow, the death of his parents while he was comparatively young, an early retirement from the world to the d... [ Continue Reading ]