Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Luke 20:20

ὥστε, אBCDL. Some MSS. have εἰς τὸ, which St Luke does not seem to use.

20. καὶ παρατηρήσαντες. For the word used see Luke 6:7; Luke 14:1; Luke 17:20. The incident now related took place on the Tuesday in Passion-week—the Day of Temptations, or insidious questions—the last and greatest day of the public ministry of Jesus. On the previous evening He had again retired to the Mount of Olives, and in the morning the disciples remarked that the Fig-tree had withered. He had scarcely arrived in the Temple when the plot of the Jewish rulers on the previous evening began to be carried out.

ἐνκαθέτους. ‘Liers in wait’ (ἐνκαθέτους, Joshua 8:14; Job 31:9).

δικαίους. ‘Righteous;’ ingenuous and scrupulous ‘disciples of the wise,’ honestly seeking for instruction. They pretend to be strict legalists who revive the scruples of Judas the Gaulonite. Meyer appositely quotes Cicero (Off. I. 13), “qui tum, quum maxime fallunt, id agunt ut viri boni videantur.”

ἐπιλάβωνται αὐτοῦ λόγου. The ‘they’ means the priests; that they may take hold of Him by His speech. Comp. Xen. Anab. IV. 7, § 12, ἐπιλαμβάνεται αὐτοῦ τῆς ἴτυος, ‘he takes hold of him by the rim of his shield.’ Both genitives are partitive. Comp. Sir 8:11, “Rise not up in anger at the presence of an injurious person, lest he lie in wait to entrap thee in thy words.” The words might be rendered ‘take hold of Him by His speech.’

ὥστε. See Luke 4:29. Here also some MSS. read εἰς τὸ. See critical notes.

τῇ�. The ἀρχὴ refers to the military, and ἐξουσία to the civil rule. Ἡγεμὼν is a general word for the more precise ἐπίτροπος. ‘To the (Roman) magistracy and to the jurisdiction of the procurator.’ Comp. Luke 12:11; 1 Corinthians 15:24. They had not the power or the courage to put Christ to death themselves. We see from Matthew 22:15; Mark 12:16 that this plot sprang from an unholy alliance of Pharisees with Herodians—i.e. of scrupulosity with indifferentism—of devotees with sycophants; uniting in common hatred “to crush a reformer whose zeal might be inimical to both.” (Neander.)

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Luke 20:20

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