XVIII. (1) THAT MEN OUGHT ALWAYS TO PRAY, AND NOT TO FAINT. — The latter of the two verbs is noticeable as being used in the New Testament by St. Luke and St. Paul only (2 Corinthians 4:1; 2 Corinthians 4:16; Galatians 6:9; 2 Thessalonians 3:13). The whole verse is remarkable as being one of the fe... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE WAS IN A CITY A JUDGE. — The words have an interest historically, as testifying to the general disorganisation and corruption of justice which prevailed under the then government of Galilee and Peræa. Under the direct administration of the Roman Procurator, severe as his rule was, there was pr... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE WAS A WIDOW IN THAT CITY. — The neglect of the cause of the widow had always been noted by Lawgiver and Prophet — and it was one of the notes of a high ethical standard in both — as the extremest form of oppressive tyranny (Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 10:18; Deuteronomy 27:19; Isaiah 1:17; Isaia... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WOULD NOT FOR A WHILE. — The judge was callous and dead to pity, even for that extremest wretchedness. The pleadings of the widow were simply an annoyance, which at first he bore with indifference. THOUGH I FEAR NOT GOD, NOR REGARD MAN. — Here, also, there is a graphic touch of intensity. The ma... [ Continue Reading ]
LEST BY HER CONTINUAL COMING SHE WEARY ME. — The latter verb is again one which takes its place in the vocabulary of unusual words common to St. Luke and St. Paul. It meets us in 1 Corinthians 9:27, and is there rendered “I k_eep under_ my body.” Literally, however, it expresses the act of the pugil... [ Continue Reading ]
THE UNJUST JUDGE. — Literally, _the judge of injustice,_ as with the unjust steward in Luke 16:8, the usual adjective giving way to the stronger, more Hebraic idiom of the characterising genitive.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SHALL NOT GOD AVENGE HIS OWN ELECT? — There is at first something which jars on us in this choice of an extreme instance of human unrighteousness as a parable from which we are to learn the nature and the power of prayer. It is not as it was with the Unjust Steward, for there, according to the t... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THE SON OF MAN COMETH, SHALL HE FIND FAITH? — The question implies, it is obvious, an answer in the negative. When St. Luke wrote his Gospel, men were witnessing a primary, though partial, fulfilment of the prophecy. Iniquity was abounding, and the love of many was waxing cold. And yet in one s... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTO CERTAIN WHICH TRUSTED IN THEMSELVES... — Here, as above, the purpose of the parable is stated at the outset. It is, perhaps, open for us to think that isolated fragments of our Lord’s teaching, treasured up here and there in the memory of disciples, and written down in answer to St. Luke’s inqu... [ Continue Reading ]
WENT UP INTO THE TEMPLE. — The peculiar form of the verb, “went _up,”_ was strictly justified by the position of the Temple. It stood on what had been Mount Moriah, and rose high above the other buildings of the city. THE ONE A PHARISEE, AND THE OTHER A PUBLICAN. — The two words would be more picto... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PHARISEE STOOD AND PRAYED THUS WITH HIMSELF. — A false stress has often been laid on the Pharisee’s attitude, as though his standing erect was in itself an indication of his self-righteous pride. But the publican also stood, and although another tense of the same verb is used, it is an over-subt... [ Continue Reading ]
I FAST TWICE IN THE WEEK. — From the negative side of his self-analysis the Pharisee passes to the positive. The Stoic Emperor is a little less systematic, or rather groups his thanksgiving after a different plan, and, it must be owned, with a higher ethical standard. On the fasts of the Pharisees o... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PUBLICAN, STANDING AFAR OFF. — The words point to a sense of shame which kept the publican away from the crowd of worshippers who pressed forward to the ark-end of the outer court of the Temple — away, above all, from the devout and respectable Pharisee. So might some “forlorn and desperate cast... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS MAN WENT DOWN TO HIS HOUSE, JUSTIFIED RATHER THAN THE OTHER. — The Greek participle is in the perfect, implying a completed and abiding justification. There is something suggestive in the fact that the “house” is made the test in each case. Home-life is the test of the reality and acceptablenes... [ Continue Reading ]
(15-17) AND THEY BROUGHT UNTO HIM ALSO INFANTS. — See Notes on Matthew 19:13; Mark 10:13. St. Luke, for some reason or other (possibly because he had recorded like teaching in Luke 16:18), omits the previous teaching as to divorce. The use of the specific word for “infants” is peculiar to him. The u... [ Continue Reading ]
SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME. — The close agreement with St. Mark in this and the following verse, makes it probable that this is one of the passages which St. Luke derived from personal communication with him. (See _Introduction._)... [ Continue Reading ]
(18-23) AND A CERTAIN RULER ASKED HIM,... — See Notes on Matthew 19:16; Mark 10:17. St. Luke alone describes the inquirer as a “ruler.” As used without any defining genitive, and interpreted by Luke 23:13; Luke 23:35; John 3:1; John 7:26; John 7:48, _et al.,_ it seems to imply that he was a member o... [ Continue Reading ]
WHY CALLEST THOU ME GOOD? — The agreement with St. Mark is again closer than with St. Matthew.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU KNOWEST THE COMMANDMENTS. — St. Luke here agrees with St. Matthew in omitting the “defraud not,” which we find in St. Mark.... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM MY YOUTH UP. — The detail may be noted as a point in common with St. Mark, as also is the omission of the question, “What lack I yet?” given in St. Matthew.... [ Continue Reading ]
YET LACKEST THOU ONE THING. — It may be noted that the words almost imply the previous question, which has just been referred to. AND COME, FOLLOW ME. — St. Luke, with St. Matthew, omits the “taking up thy cross,” which is found in many, but not all, MSS. of St. Mark.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WAS VERY SORROWFUL. — St. Luke’s word stands half-way between St. Matthew’s “sorrowing” and St. Mark’s vivid “lowering” or “frowning.” (See Note on Mark 10:22.) HE WAS VERY RICH. — St. Luke’s equivalent for _he had great possessions._ There is, perhaps, something suggestive, especially on the vi... [ Continue Reading ]
(24-27) WHEN JESUS SAW THAT HE WAS VERY SORROWFUL. — See Notes on Matthew 19:23; Mark 10:23. The better MSS. give simply, “When Jesus saw him, He said...” HOW HARDLY SHALL THEY THAT HAVE RICHES... — Another verbal agreement with St. Mark.... [ Continue Reading ]
THROUGH A NEEDLE’S EYE. — The Greek word for “needle” in the better MSS. differs from that in St. Matthew and St. Mark, and is a more classical word. That which the others use was unknown to Attic writers. The fact, small as it is, takes its place among the signs of St. Luke’s culture.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY THAT HEARD IT. — St. Luke’s way of putting the fact suggests the thought either that others may have been present besides the disciples who are named in the other Gospels, or that only some of the disciples heard what had been said.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE THINGS WHICH ARE IMPOSSIBLE WITH MEN. — The answer is substantially the same as we find in the other Gospels, but it assumes in St. Luke something more of the form of a generalised axiom.... [ Continue Reading ]
(28-30) THEN PETER SAID,... — See Notes on Matthew 19:27; Mark 10:28. The better MSS. have, “We have left our own (possessions).” “All” was probably substituted from a recollection of the words as found in the other reports.... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE IS NO MAN THAT HATH LEFT... — There is possibly something characteristic in the omission of the “lands,” which we find in the other Gospels. To leave a “house” implied the breaking-up of the life of home and its relationships, but the companion of Paul and Barnabas might well have thought so l... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO SHALL NOT RECEIVE MANIFOLD MORE. — Note, as again, perhaps, characteristic, the omission of the essentially Jewish image of the “sitting on twelve thrones” in St. Matthew, of the clause “with persecutions,” in St. Mark, and of the words, “Many that are first shall be last...” which we find in bo... [ Continue Reading ]
(31-34) THEN HE TOOK UNTO HIM THE TWELVE. — See Notes on Matthew 20:17; Mark 10:32. St. Luke, like St. Mark, passes over the parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard. The insertion of the reference to the prophecies of the Passion is, on the other hand, peculiar to him, and is, perhaps, connected wi... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL BE DELIVERED UNTO THE GENTILES. — The words are nearly the same as in the other Gospels, but the “spitefully entreated” is peculiar to St. Luke.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY UNDERSTOOD NONE OF THESE THINGS. — The whole verse is peculiar to St. Luke, and reproduces what had been said before in Luke 9:45, where see Note. It is as though his professional habit of analysis led him to dwell on these psychological phenomena as explaining the subsequent bewilderment of th... [ Continue Reading ]
AS HE WAS COME NIGH UNTO JERICHO. — Better, _as He was coming nigh._ See Notes on Matthew 20:29; Mark 10:46. St. Luke, for some reason, passes over the ambitious request of the sons of Zebedee. He agrees with St. Mark, and not with St. Matthew, as to there being _one_ blind man, and as to the miracl... [ Continue Reading ]
HEARING THE MULTITUDE PASS BY. — Better, _a multitude,_ the Greek having no article, and its absence better expressing the vague impression left on the blind man by the sound of many footsteps and voices.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WHICH WENT BEFORE — _viz.,_ those who were in advance of Jesus; probably, if we suppose Mark 10:32 to represent the usual order, not the disciples, but a portion of the crowd. On “the Son of David,” see Note on Matthew 9:27.... [ Continue Reading ]
LORD, THAT I MAY RECEIVE MY SIGHT. — As St. Luke uses “Lord” (_kyrie_) for St. Mark’s “Rabboni,” it may be inferred that he uses it in a somewhat higher sense than either of his two words for Master. (See Notes on Luke 5:5; Luke 8:24.)... [ Continue Reading ]
THY FAITH HATH SAVED THEE. — Better, as in St. Mark, _Thy faith hath made thee whole,_ the immediate reference being obviously to the restoration of the man’s sight, and that which was in the immediate future being recognised as already ideally completed. Beyond this, as in the use of the same formu... [ Continue Reading ]
GLORIFYING GOD. — The account of the effect of the miracle on the blind man himself, and on the people, is peculiar to St. Luke, and seems to belong to the class of phenomena which he loved to study (Luke 5:25; Luke 7:16; Acts 3:8; Acts 14:10).... [ Continue Reading ]