XXI. (1-4) AND SAW THE RICH MEN CASTING THEIR GIFTS. — See Notes on Mark 12:41. This may, perhaps, be thought of as one of the incidents which St. Luke derived from verbal communication with his brother-evangelist. (See _Introduction._)... [ Continue Reading ]
A CERTAIN POOR WIDOW. — St. Luke’s word for “poor” differs from St. Mark’s, and seems to have been carefully chosen to express the fact that the widow, though “needy,” and compelled to work for her scanty maintenance, was yet not a “beggar,” as the more common word for “poor” suggested. It is not fo... [ Continue Reading ]
OF A TRUTH. — St. Luke’s use (according to the better MSS.) of the Greek for “truly,” instead of St. Mark’s “Amen” (so in the Greek), may, perhaps, be noted as characteristic.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR ALL THESE HAVE... CAST. — Better, _all these cast_..., and so in the next clause. UNTO THE OFFERINGS OF GOD. — The better MSS. omit the last two words. “Offerings,” literally, _gifts. _... [ Continue Reading ]
AND AS SOME SPAKE OF THE TEMPLE. — See Notes on Matthew 24:1; Mark 13:1, where the “some” are identified with the disciples. GOODLY STONES. — These were probably so called, either as being sculptured, or as being of marble, or porphyry, or other of the more precious materials used in building. GIFT... [ Continue Reading ]
(7-19) MASTER, BUT WHEN SHALL THESE THINGS BE? — See Notes on Matthew 24:3; Mark 13:3. St. Luke omits the Mount of Olives as being the scene of the question and the prophecy, and the names of the questioners, the latter being given by St. Mark only. The variations in the report throughout imply an i... [ Continue Reading ]
Saying, I am Christ. — Literally, _I am._ The italics show that the word “Christ” is an interpolation. The sentence is better left in the vagueness of the original, or with only a pronoun as the predicate, _I am He._ The use of the words in John 1:21; John 8:58, may be referred to as showing that th... [ Continue Reading ]
COMMOTIONS. — The word does not occur in the other Gospels, but is used by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:33 (“confusion”), 2 Corinthians 6:5; 2 Corinthians 12:20 (“tumults”). Its exact meaning is _unsettlement, disorder._ BE NOT TERRIFIED. — The word is used by St. Luke only, here and in Luke 24:37,... [ Continue Reading ]
FAMINES AND PESTILENCES. — The mention of the latter is, as far as the best MSS. are concerned, a feature peculiar to St. Luke. Others, however, give the same combination in Matthew 24:7. The Greek nouns are all but identical in sound (_limos =_ famine, and _loimos_ = pestilence), and there is accor... [ Continue Reading ]
BEFORE ALL THESE. — The special indication that the sufferings from persecution should precede those from wars, famines, and the like, is peculiar to St. Luke, and was, it need hardly be said, abundantly fulfilled.... [ Continue Reading ]
IT SHALL TURN TO YOU FOR A TESTIMONY. — There are but two writers in the New Testament who use the verb (literally, _to come out_) in this figurative sense. St. Luke is one, and the other is St. Paul, in a passage so closely parallel to this as to read almost like an echo of it (Philippians 1:19). T... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT TO MEDITATE BEFORE... — The word differs from that used in the parallel passage of Mark 13:11, “take no thought” (the addition of “premeditate” there is very doubtful), as involving less anxiety. It is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, but the uncompounded verb meets us, as used by St. P... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL GIVE YOU A MOUTH AND WISDOM. — The promise, even in its form, reminds us of that given to Moses when he drew back from the task of uttering God’s message to His people (Exodus 4:15). The inward faculty of thought, the outward power of uttering thought in words, should both be given. The words... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE SHALL NOT AN HAIR OF YOUR HEAD PERISH. — The promise does not meet us in this form in the parallel passages of the two other Gospels. A like promise meets us in Matthew 10:30; Luke 12:7. The very same phrase occurs, however, almost as if it were a quotation from this Gospel, in St. Paul’s addr... [ Continue Reading ]
IN YOUR PATIENCE POSSESS YE YOUR SOULS. — Better, _By your endurance gain ye your lives._ The verb, unless used in the perfect tense, always involves the idea of “acquiring” rather than “possessing,” and the command so understood answers _to_ the promise, “He that endureth to the end, the same shall... [ Continue Reading ]
(20-24) WHEN YE SHALL SEE JERUSALEM COMPASSED WITH ARMIES. — See Notes on Matthew 23:15; Mark 13:14. This is St. Luke’s equivalent, possibly chosen as more intelligible for his Gentile readers, for “the abomination of desolation,” which we find in St. Matthew and St. Mark. As far as it goes, it favo... [ Continue Reading ]
LET NOT THEM THAT ARE IN THE COUNTRIES... — The noun is sometimes rendered “coasts,” sometimes “region,” sometimes “fields.” The latter meaning would seem to be that here intended. Comp. John 4:35; James 5:4, where the word is so rendered.... [ Continue Reading ]
THESE BE THE DAYS OF VENGEANCE. — The words answer to the “great tribulation” of St. Matthew and St. Mark, and seem, as indeed does St. Luke’s report of the discourse throughout, to be of the nature of a paraphrase. The word “vengeance” may have been chosen, on this view, in allusive reference to th... [ Continue Reading ]
GREAT DISTRESS IN THE LAND. — Literally, _great need,_ or _necessity._ The word, which St. Luke uses as an equivalent for “tribulation,” is not found in the other Gospels in this sense. It is, however, so used by St. Paul (1 Corinthians 7:26; 2 Corinthians 6:4; 2 Corinthians 12:10; 1 Thessalonians 3... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY SHALL FALL BY THE EDGE OF THE SWORD. — There is nothing in the parallel prophecies of the other two Gospels that answers to this special description, and it is possible, as suggested above, that St. Luke’s report here has somewhat of the character of a free paraphrase, such as was natural i... [ Continue Reading ]
(25-33) AND THERE SHALL BE SIGNS IN THE SUN. — See Notes on Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24, where the “signs” are defined as the “sun being darkened, and the moon not giving her light.” DISTRESS OF NATIONS. — The Greek for the first noun means literally, _constraint,_ the sense of being hemmed in, as wh... [ Continue Reading ]
MEN’S HEARTS FAILING THEM FOR FEAR. — The verb so rendered is used by St. Luke only in the New Testament. Its literal meaning is _to breathe out the soul,_ and it was, therefore, a word which would naturally enter into the vocabulary of a physician, both in its primary and figurative sense. The ment... [ Continue Reading ]
LOOK UP. — The Greek word, literally, _bend up,_ or _turn up,_ meets us here and in Luke 13:11, and nowhere else in the New Testament, except in the doubtful passage of John 8:7; John 8:10. REDEMPTION. — The word, familiar as it is to us, is, in the special form here used, another of those character... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ALL THE TREES. — The addition is peculiar to St. Luke. It confirms the impression that the words, which were spoken just before the Passover, when the flush of spring-tide life was seen in every grove and forest, were suggested by what met the eye of the disciples on the Mount of Olives. (See No... [ Continue Reading ]
KNOW YE THAT THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NIGH AT HAND. — St. Luke’s paraphrase fills up and explains what stands in St. Matthew and St. Mark more simply, “It is near, even at the doors.”... [ Continue Reading ]
VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU... — Here the variation ceases for a time, and the two verses are identical with Matthew 24:34, and Mark 13:30.... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE HEED TO YOURSELVES, LEST AT ANY TIME... — We again pass into what has nothing corresponding to it in the other reports of the discourse, and may therefore be assumed to be of the nature of a paraphrase. We note in it, as such, that, as far as the New Testament is concerned, St. Luke only uses t... [ Continue Reading ]
AS A SNARE... — The word is not found in the other Gospels, but is used several times by St. Paul (Romans 11:9; 1 Timothy 3:7; 1 Timothy 6:9; 2 Timothy 2:26). THEM THAT DWELL... — Elsewhere in the New Testament, the verb is used in its literal meaning of “sitting.” In the sense of “dwelling” or “re... [ Continue Reading ]
PRAY ALWAYS. — The word is not the same commonly used for “pray,” but occurs once only in the other Gospels (Matthew 9:38). St. Luke uses it fifteen times in the Gospel and Acts together, and St. Paul six times (2 Corinthians 5:20; 2 Corinthians 8:4; 2 Corinthians 10:2, _et seq._). It is not used by... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE DAY TIME... AT NIGHT. — Literally, _in the days... the nights,_ the words pointing to the mode in which the week was spent from the first day to the evening of the fifth. ABODE. — The word is better translated _lodged_ in Matthew 21:12. Strictly speaking, it meant to lodge, not in a room, bu... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THE PEOPLE CAME EARLY IN THE MORNING. — The Greek verb, which answers to the five last words, does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament, but is not uncommon in the Greek version of the Old, as in Genesis 19:2; Genesis 19:27; Song Song of Solomon 7:12; and figuratively, in Job 8:5; Jeremiah 2... [ Continue Reading ]