CHAPTER XXIV. _The women coming early to the sepulchre on the first day of the_ _week, bringing their spices, find the stone rolled away, and_ _the tomb empty_, 1-3. _They see a vision of angels, who announce Christ's resurrection_, 4-8. _The women return and tell this to the eleven_, 9, 10.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:2. _THEY FOUND THE STONE ROLLED AWAY_] An angel from God had done this before they reached the tomb, Matthew 28:2: On this case we cannot help remarking, that, when persons have strong confidence in God, obstacles do not hinder them from undertaking whatever they have reason to believe... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:3. _AND FOUND NOT THE BODY OF THE LORD_] His holy _soul_ was in _Paradise_, Luke 23:43; and the evangelist mentions the _body_ particularly, to show that _this_ only was subject to _death_. It is, I think, evident enough, from these and other words of Luke, that the doctrine of the _ma... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:5. _WHY SEEK YE THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD?_] This was a common form of speech among the Jews, and seems to be applied to those who were foolishly, impertinently, or absurdly employed. As places of burial were unclean, it was not reasonable to suppose that the _living_ should frequent t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:7. _SINFUL MEN_] Or _heathens_, ανθρωπων ἁμαρτωλων, i.e. the _Romans_, by whom only he could be put to death; for the Jews themselves acknowledged that this power was now vested in the hands of the Roman governor alone. See John 19:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:8. _THEY REMEMBERED HIS WORDS._] Even the simple _recollection_ of the words of Christ becomes often a source of comfort and support to those who are distressed or tempted: for his words are the words of _eternal life_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:10. _AND JOANNA_] She was the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward. See Luke 8:3.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:12. _THEN AROSE PETER_] John went with him, and got to the tomb before him. See John 20:2. _THE LINEN CLOTHES LAID BY THEMSELVES_] Or, _The linen clothes_ _only_. This was the fine linen which Joseph of Arimathea bought, and wrapped the body in: Mark 15:46. Small as this circumstance... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:13. _BEHOLD, TWO OF THEM_] This long and interesting account is not mentioned by Matthew nor John, and is only glanced at by Mark, Mark 16:12. One of these disciples was _Cleopas_, Luke 24:18, and the other is supposed by many learned men, both ancient and modern, to have been _Luke_... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:15. _AND REASONED_] συζητειν, concerning the probability or improbability of Christ being the _Messiah_, or of his resurrection from the dead. It was a laudable custom of the Jews, and very common also, to converse about the law in all their journeyings; and now they had especial reaso... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:16. _THEIR EYES WERE HOLDEN_] It does not appear that there was any thing _supernatural_ here, for the reason why these persons (who were not apostles, see Luke 24:33) did not recollect our Lord is given by Mark, Mark 16:12, who says that Christ appeared to them _in another form_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:18. _CLEOPAS_] The same as Alpheus, father of the Apostle James, Mark 3:18, and husband of the sister of the virgin. John 19:25. _ART THOU ONLY A STRANGER_] As if he had said, What has been done it Jerusalem, within these few days, has been so public, so awful, and so universally know... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:19. _WHICH WAS A PROPHET_] ανηρ προφητης, _a man prophet_, a genuine prophet; but this has been considered as a Hebraism: "for, in Exodus 2:14, a _man prince_ is simply _a prince_; and in 1 Samuel 31:3, _men archers_ mean no more than _archers_." But my own opinion is, that this word... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:21. _Cleopas_ paints the real state of his own mind in these verses. In his relation there is scarcely any thing well connected; important points are referred to, and not explained, though he considered the person to whom he spoke as entirely _unacquainted_ with these transactions: his... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 25. _O FOOLS AND SLOW OF HEART TO BELIEVE_] _Inconsiderate_ men, justly termed such, because they had not properly _attended_ to the description given of the Messiah by the prophets, nor to _his_ teaching and miracles, as proofs that HE _alone_ was the person they described. _Slow of heart -... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 26. _OUGHT NOT CHRIST TO HAVE SUFFERED_] Ουχι εδει παθειν τον Χριστον, _Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer_. This was the way in which sin must be expiated, and, without this, no soul could have been saved. The _suffering Messiah_ is he alone by whom Israel and the world can be... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 27. _BEGINNING AT MOSES_, c.] What a sermon this must have been, where all the prophecies relative to the _incarnation, birth,_ _teaching, miracles, sufferings, death_, and _resurrection_ of the blessed Jesus were all adduced, illustrated, and applied to himself, by an appeal to the well known... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 28. _HE MADE AS THOUGH HE WOULD HAVE GONE FARTHER._] That is, _he was going on, as though he intended to go farther_; and so he doubtless would had they not earnestly pressed him to lodge with them. His preaching had made a deep impression upon their hearts, Luke 24:32, and now they feel it th... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 29. _FOR IT IS TOWARD EVENING_] And consequently both inconvenient and unsafe to proceed to another village. Reader! it is probably the _eve_ of thy life, whether thou be _old_ or _young_: thy day may have _already declined_, and there is, possibly, but _a_ _step_ between thee and the eternal... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 30. _HE TOOK BREAD_] This was the office of the master and father of a family, and this was our Lord's usual custom among his disciples. Those whom Christ _lodges_ with he _feeds_, and feeds too with _bread_ that himself hath _blessed_, and this feeding not only _strengthens_, but also _enligh... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 31. _THEIR EYES WERE OPENED_] But we are not to imagine that he administered the holy eucharist at this time; there is not the most distant evidence of this. It was a mere _family meal_, and ended before it was well begun. _THEY KNEW HIM_] His acting as father of the family, in _taking,_ _ble... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 32. _DID NOT OUR HEART BURN WITHIN US_] His word was in our heart as a burning fire, Jeremiah 20:9. Our hearts waxed hot within us, and while we were musing the fire burned, Psalms 39:3. In some such way as this the words of the disciples may be understood: but there is a very remarkable readi... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 34. _SAYING, THE LORD_ IS _RISEN INDEED_] The meaning here is, that these two disciples found the apostles, and those who were with them, unanimously testifying that Christ had risen from the dead. It is not the two disciples to whom we are to refer the word λεγοντας, _saying_; but to the body... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 35. _AND THEY_] The two disciples who were just come from Emmaus, _related what had happened_ to them _on the way_, going to Emmaus, _and how he had been known unto them in the breaking of_ _bread_, while supping together at the above village. Luke 24:31, Luke 24:31.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 36. _AND AS THEY THUS SPAKE_] While the two disciples who were going to Emmaus were conversing about Christ, he joined himself to their company. Now, while they and the apostles are confirming each other in their belief of his resurrection, Jesus comes in, to remove every doubt, and to give th... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 37. _AND SUPPOSED THAT THEY HAD SEEN A SPIRIT._] But if there be no such thing as a _disembodied spirit_, would not our Lord have shown them their error? Instead of this, he confirms them in their opinion, by saying, _A spirit hath not flesh and bones as you_ _see me have_, Luke 24:39; therefo... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 41. _THEY - BELIEVED NOT FOR JOY_] They were so overcome with the joy of his resurrection, that they did not, for some time, properly receive the evidence that was before them - as we phrase it, _they thought the news too good to be true_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 44. _THE LAW - THE PROPHETS - THE PSALMS_] This was the Jewish division of the whole old covenant. The LAW contained the _five_ books of Moses; the PROPHETS, the Jews divided into _former_ and _latter_; they were, according to Josephus, _thirteen_. "The PSALMS included not only the book still... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 45. _THEN OPENED HE THEIR UNDERSTANDING_] διηνοιξεν, _He_ _fully opened_. They had a _measure_ of _light_ before, so that they discerned the Scriptures to be the _true word_ of God, and to speak of the Messiah; but they had not light _sufficient_ to enable them to _apply_ these Scriptures to... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 47. _REPENTANCE_] See its nature fully explained on Matthew 3:1. _REMISSION OF SINS_] αφεσιν αμαρτιων, The _taking away _- removal _of_ _sins_, in general every thing that relates to the _destruction_ of the _power_, the _pardoning_ of the _guilt_, and the _purification_ of the heart from the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 48. _YE ARE WITNESSES OF THESE THINGS._] He gave them a full commission to proclaim these glad tidings of peace and salvation to a lost world. The disciples were _witnesses_ not only that Christ had _suffered_ and _rose again_ from the dead; but also that he _opens_ the _understanding_ by the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 49. _THE PROMISE OF MY FATHER_] That is, the _Holy Ghost_, promised, John 15:26. See Acts 1:4; Acts 2:33. _UNTIL YE BE ENDUED WITH POWER_] The energy of the Holy Ghost was to be communicated to them for _three_ particular purposes. 1. That he might be in them, a _sanctifying comforter_, fort... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:50. _HE LED THEM OUT AS FAR AS TO BETHANY_] The difficulties in this verse, when collated with the accounts given by the other evangelists, are thus reconciled by Dr. _Lightfoot_. "I. This very evangelist (Acts 1:12) tells us, that when the disciples came back from the place where our... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:51. _CARRIED UP INTO HEAVEN._] ανεφερετο - _into_ that _heaven_ from which he had _descended_, John 1:18; John 3:13. This was _forty days_ after his resurrection, Acts 1:3, during which time he had given the most convincing proofs of that resurrection, not only to the _apostles_, but t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:52. _THEY WORSHIPPED HIM_] Let it be observed that this worship was not given by way of civil respect, for it was _after_ he was parted from them, and carried back into heaven, that they offered it to him; but acts of civil respect are always performed in the presence of the person. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Luke 24:53. _WERE CONTINUALLY IN THE TEMPLE_] Especially till the day of pentecost came, when they received the promise, mentioned Luke 24:49. _PRAISING AND BLESSING GOD._] Magnifying his mercy, and speaking good of his name. Thus the days of their mourning were ended; and they began that lif... [ Continue Reading ]