Luke 4:32

ἐξεπλήσσοντο. The word expresses more sudden and vehement astonishment than the more deeply-seated ‘amaze’ of Luke 4:36.

ἐπὶ τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ. ‘At His teaching,’ referring here to the manner He adopted.

ἐν ἐξουσία ἦν ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ. ‘His word was with authority,’ comp. Luke 4:36. St Matthew gives one main secret of their astonishment when he says that “He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes,” Luke 7:29. The religious teaching of the Scribes in our Lord’s day had already begun to be the second-hand repetition of minute precedents supported by endless authorities. (“Rabbi Zeira says on the authority of Rabbi Jose bar Rabbi Chanina, and Rabbi Ba or Rabbi Chiya on the authority of Rabbi Jochanan, &c., &c.” Schwab. Jer. Berachôth, p. 159.) We see the final outcome of this servile secondhandness in the dreary trivialities of the Talmud. But Christ referred to no precedents; quoted no ‘authorities;’ dealt with fresher and nobler topics than fantastic hagadoth (‘legends’) and weary traditional halachôth (‘rules’). He spoke straight from the heart to the heart, appealing for confirmation solely to truth and conscience,—the inner witness of the Spirit.