Luke 23:1-5
XXIII. (1-5) AND THE WHOLE MULTITUDE OF THEM AROSE. — See Notes on Matthew 27:11; Mark 15:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
XXIII. (1-5) AND THE WHOLE MULTITUDE OF THEM AROSE. — See Notes on Matthew 27:11; Mark 15:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
PERVERTING THE NATION, AND FORBIDDING TO GIVE TRIBUTE... — St. Luke’s report of the accusation is more definite than that in the other Gospels. The question asked in Luke 20:20, was obviously intended to lead up to this; and though then baffled by our Lord’s answer, the priests now brought, backed b... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SAYEST IT. — Here, as in Luke 22:70 and Matthew 26:64, the formula is one of confession. The fuller narrative of St. John should be compared throughout.... [ Continue Reading ]
I FIND NO FAULT IN THIS MAN. — The Greek term for “fault” is somewhat more technical than the. English, and is almost equivalent to what we call the “count” of an indictment. It may be noted that, as far as the New Testament is concerned, it is peculiar to St. Luke, in this chapter and in Luke 20:40... [ Continue Reading ]
TEACHING THROUGHOUT ALL JEWRY. — This is one of the few passages in which the old English equivalent for Judæa retains its place in the Authorised version (Daniel 5:13); in the Prayer Book version of the Psalms, from the Great Bible (see _Introduction_)_,_ we find it in Psalms 76:1. Traces of the ge... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN PILATE HEARD OF GALILEE. — The incident that follows is peculiar to St. Luke, and may have been obtained by him from Manaen or other persons connected with the Herodian household with whom he appears to have come in contact. (See _Introduction._) It is obvious that Pilate catches at the word in... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTO HEROD’S JURISDICTION. — The word is the same as that commonly translated “authority,” but the English exactly expresses its meaning here. WHO HIMSELF ALSO WAS AT JERUSALEM. — It was, of course, no strange thing that the Tetrarch of Galilee, professing Judaism, should come up to keep the Passov... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WAS DESIROUS TO SEE HIM OF A LONG season. — The vague feeling of wonder had begun soon after the death of the Baptist. (See Notes on Matthew 14:2; Mark 6:14.) It had its beginning in hearing of wonders; it ended in a desire to see one. It was mingled, possibly, with a feeling of bitter enmity whi... [ Continue Reading ]
HE ANSWERED HIM NOTHING. — We can hardly help asking ourselves what were likely to have been among Herod’s questions. Did the Prisoner who stood before him really claim to be a King? Did He proclaim Himself as the Christ? Was He John the Baptist, risen from the dead? If not, who and what were his ea... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHIEF PRIESTS AND SCRIBES. — The accusers seem to have accompanied the Accused. There was nothing strange in the presence of the Sadducean members of the higher priestly order, always courting the favour of the powerful, at the court of the Tetrarch. Among the scribes may have been some of the H... [ Continue Reading ]
HEROD WITH HIS MEN OF WAR. — Better, perhaps, _troops,_ or _soldiers._ The word is the same as that translated “armies” in Matthew 22:7; Acts 23:27; “soldiers” in Acts 23:10. ARRAYED HIM IN A GORGEOUS ROBE. — Literally, _bright._ The word is used of the angel’s garment, in Acts 10:30; of fine linen,... [ Continue Reading ]
BEFORE THEY WERE AT ENMITY BETWEEN THEMSELVES. — The special cause of enmity is not known. Possibly the massacre of the Galileans, mentioned in Luke 13:1, may have had somewhat to do with it. The union of the two in their enmity against Jesus, though not mentioned in the Gospels, is referred to in t... [ Continue Reading ]
(13-23) AND PILATE, WHEN HE HAD CALLED TOGETHER...-See Notes on Matthew 27:15; Mark 15:6. The first summons to the members of the Council, and the reference to Herod’s examination of the Prisoner are, as the sequel of the previous incident, peculiar to St. Luke.... [ Continue Reading ]
I SENT YOU TO HIM. — The better MSS. give, “he sent him back to us.” NOTHING WORTHY OF DEATH IS DONE UNTO HIM. — Better, _is done by Him._ The translators appear to have mistaken the construction, and to have taken the words as meaning “nothing worthy of death has been done to — _i.e.,_ against — H... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL THEREFORE CHASTISE HIM. — The primary meaning of the word was to correct as children are corrected, thence to use the rod, as in Proverbs 19:18; Proverbs 29:17. As used here it implied the Roman punishment of scourging. Pilate was here, as throughout, halting between two opinions, convinced o... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR OF NECESSITY HE MUST RELEASE ONE UNTO THEM. — Literally, _he had a necessity._ The better MSS. are singularly divided as to this verse. Most omit it altogether. One, followed by some of the versions, has it after Luke 23:19. It would seem probable from these facts that the narrative was original... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO FOR A CERTAIN SEDITION. — St. Luke’s and St. Mark’s accounts agree more closely than the others. St. John alone speaks of Barabbas as a “robber;” St. Matthew merely calls him a “notable prisoner.”... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WERE INSTANT. — Literally, _they pressed upon Him._ As the adjective is almost passing into the list of obsolescent words, it may be well to remind the reader that it has the force of “urgent.” So we have “instant in prayer” (Romans 12:12), “be instant in season, out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2).... [ Continue Reading ]
(24-28) AND PILATE GAVE SENTENCE. — See Notes on Matthew 27:24; Mark 15:15. St. Luke’s account is here the briefest of the four, St. John’s by far the fullest. Here we read nothing of the outrages of Pilate’s troops, the purple robe, and the crown of thorns. The omissions are significant, in conjunc... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOM THEY HAD DESIRED. — Better, _whom they were asking for._ The tense is imperfect, not pluperfect, and implies that the cries were still continuing.... [ Continue Reading ]
A GREAT COMPANY OF PEOPLE, AND OF WOMEN. — Here, again, we come across a characteristic incident peculiar to St. Luke, and obviously derived from the devout women to whom we have traced so many facts which he alone records. (See _Introduction._)_ “_Daughters of Jerusalem” were there, as our Lord’s w... [ Continue Reading ]
DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM. — It is characteristic of the tenderness of our Lord’s sympathy that these were the first words recorded as coming from His lips after He left the presence of Pilate. The mocking, the scourging, the spitting, had all been borne in silence. Now He speaks, and His thoughts are... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED ARE THE BARREN. — We must enter into all the passionate desire of Israelite women for offspring, as we see it, _e.g.,_ in Rachel (Genesis 30:1) and in Hannah (1 Samuel 1:10), in order to estimate the strangeness of such a beatitude. With some of those who heard it, its force may have been em... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SHALL THEY BEGIN TO SAY TO THE MOUNTAINS. — The imagery was natural in a limestone country such as Judæa, subject to earthquakes. Commonly, such catastrophes were dreaded, and men prayed against them. The time was coming when the dens and caves which usually offered a place of refuge from invad... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THEY DO THESE THINGS IN A GREEN TREE. — The word for “tree” primarily meant “wood” or “timber,” the tree cut down. In later Greek, however, as, _e.g.,_ in Revelation 2:7; Revelation 22:2; Revelation 22:14; Revelation 22:19, it was used for “tree.” The “green tree” is, therefore, that which is yet... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PLACE, WHICH IS CALLED CALVARY. — On the place and name, see Note on Matthew 27:33. As a matter of translation, it would clearly have been better either to give the Greek form (_Cranion_)_,_ or its meaning (= “skull”) in English. The Vulgate, however, had given _Calvarium,_ and that word had tak... [ Continue Reading ]
FATHER, FORGIVE THEM; FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO. — Again, the silence is broken, not by the cry of anguish or sigh of passionate complaint, but by words of tenderest pity and intercession. It is well, however, that we should remember who were the primary direct objects of that prayer. Not Pilat... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE RULERS ALSO WITH THEM DERIDED HIM. — St. Luke uses the generic term for the members of the Sanhedrin, whom St. Matthew particularises as “chief priests, scribes, and elders.” The verb is the same as in 16:14, and implies the curled lip and distended nostril of scorn. HE SAVED OTHERS. — The... [ Continue Reading ]
OFFERING HIM VINEGAR. — Not even the prayer for their forgiveness had touched the hearts of the soldiers. But still, they knew not what they did, and did but follow, after their nature, in the path in which others led the way. Possibly too, rude as their natures were, there was a touch of rough kind... [ Continue Reading ]
AND A SUPERSCRIPTION. — See Note on Matthew 27:38.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ONE OF THE MALEFACTORS. — The incident that follows is singularly characteristic of St. Luke. If we ask how he came to know what the other Gospels pass over, we may, I think, find his probable informants once more in the devout women who followed Jesus to the place of Crucifixion, and who stood... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THE OTHER ANSWERING REBUKED HIM. — On the legends connected with the penitent thief, see Notes on Matthew 27:44. Dysmas, or Titus, as they name him, had once before looked on the face of the Christ. He had been one of a band of robbers that attacked the holy travellers in their flight from Bethl... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS MAN HATH DONE NOTHING AMISS. — The confident assertion may have rested on previous knowledge of our Lord’s life and character, or on some report that had reached him on his way to Golgotha, or on Pilate’s confession that he found no fault in Him.... [ Continue Reading ]
LORD, REMEMBER ME WHEN THOU COMEST INTO THY KINGDOM. — More accurately, _in Thy kingdom._ There is something singularly touching in the trust implied in the form of the appeal. He asks for no special boon, no place on the right hand or on the left; no room in the King’s palace. He is content not to... [ Continue Reading ]
TO DAY SHALT THOU BE WITH ME IN PARADISE. — We have first to consider the word, then the thought expressed by it. The former first appears as a Persian word applied to land enclosed as a park or garden for a king or satrap. As such it meets us often in Xenophon’s _Anabasis_ (i. 2, § 7; 4, § 9, _et a... [ Continue Reading ]
(44-46) AND IT WAS ABOUT THE SIXTH HOUR. — See Notes on Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33. We can only conjecturally account for the omission of the “ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI,” so prominent in the other two reports; but it is at least conceivable, assuming the same sources of information as before, that t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN JESUS HAD CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE, HE SAID.... — Better. _And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and said_... The English text emphasises too strongly the distinctness of the act, possibly with the implied suggestion that the cry might have consisted of the words which St. Luke does not report.... [ Continue Reading ]
(47-49) NOW WHEN THE CENTURION SAW WHAT WAS DONE... — See Notes on Matthew 27:54; Mark 15:40. The phrase “glorified God” is, as has been noticed already (Luke 5:25), specially characteristic of St. Luke. The substitution of “this was a righteous man,” for “this was the Son of God,” may, perhaps, hav... [ Continue Reading ]
TO THAT SIGHT. — The word is used by St. Luke-only in the New Testament, and exactly expresses the purpose of those who had come as to gaze on a “spectacle.” These had probably taken little or no part in the insults and taunts of the priests, and now they went away awed, partly by the darkness, part... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL HIS ACQUAINTANCE. — This is the only passage in which the word is used. St. Luke apparently employs it as intermediate between the spectators and the avowed disciples. Such may have been Simon, or Lazarus, of Bethany, or the rulers who believed yet did hot confess, or the owners of the ass and o... [ Continue Reading ]
(50-56) BEHOLD, THERE WAS A MAN NAMED JOSEPH. — See Notes on Matthew 27:57; Mark 15:42. St. Luke agrees with St. Mark in calling him a “counsellor,” but the epithets, “good man and just,” are peculiar to him. The adjective for good is not often applied to persons in the New Testament. In Acts 11:24... [ Continue Reading ]
THE COUNSEL AND DEED OF THEM. — The first word includes all the earlier stages of the action of the Sanhedrin, from the counsel given by Caiaphas (John 11:49) to the final condemnation; the second, the unofficial acts, such as the compact with Judas, and the delivery to Pilate. WHO ALSO HIMSELF WAI... [ Continue Reading ]
A SEPULCHRE THAT WAS HEWN IN STONE. — The descriptive word differs from that used by St. Matthew and St. Mark, as being slightly more technical, and implying a higher degree of finish.... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT DAY WAS THE PREPARATION. — See Note on Matthew 27:52. THE SABBATH DREW ON. — Literally, _the Sabbath was dawning._ It is a question whether the word is used here of the actual beginning of the Sabbath — which was, of course, at sunset after the Crucifixion — or, as St. Matthew appears to use i... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE WOMEN ALSO. — Here again we come upon traces of St. Luke’s informants. The other Gospels speak of one or two by name. He knows that others belonging to the company of women who came with Jesus from Galilee (note the recurrence of the same description as in Luke 23:49) had taken part in the w... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY RETURNED, AND PREPARED SPICES AND OINTMENTS. — This seems at first inconsistent with their “buying” spices after the Sabbath was over (Luke 24:1). Possibly, we have two groups of women — the two Maries and “Joanna and the others” (Luke 24:10) — taking part in the same work; possibly, what they... [ Continue Reading ]