Luke 9:51 to Luke 18:31_. Rejected by the Samaritans. A lesson of Tolerance._ This section forms a great episode in St Luke, which may be called the departure for the final conflict, and is identical with the journey (probably to the Feast of the Dedication, John 10:22) which is partially Luke 9:51... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 17:1-4. The Peril of causing Men to Stumble. 1. _It is impossible_ i.e. in the present condition of the world it is morally impossible. _offences_ See on Luke 7:23. While the world remains what it is, some will always set snares and stumblingblocks in the path of their brethren, and some will... [ Continue Reading ]
_It were better for him,_&c. The literal rendering of the verse is "It is for his advantage if a millstone _is hanging_round his neck, and _he has been flung_into the sea, rather than that, &c." In other words, the fate of a man who is lying drowned at the bottom of the sea is better than if his con... [ Continue Reading ]
_Take heed to yourselves_ The following lesson of forgiveness is added because the hard repellent spirit of aggressive Pharisaism and spiritual pride was of all others the most likely to cause offences. It broke up the bruised reed, and stamped on the smoking flax. _If thy brother trespass against... [ Continue Reading ]
_seven times in a day_ A purely general expression, which as little involves the quantitative limitation of forgiveness upon repentance as the "seventy times seven" of Matthew 18:22. Some of the Rabbis had limited the duty of forgiveness to a thrice-repeated offence; but "Who with repentance is not... [ Continue Reading ]
5-10. The Power of Faith. The Insufficiency of Works. 5. _the apostles said unto the Lord_ The high title given, and the spontaneous united request, shew how deeply they had felt the previous lessons. _Increase our faith_ Literally "_Add to us faith,"_without which we can never fulfil these great... [ Continue Reading ]
_as a grain of mustard seed_ "which is the least of all seeds," Matthew 13:32. _unto this sycamine tree_ The -this: is interesting because it shews that our Lord was teaching in the open air, and pointed to the tree as He spoke. The sycamine (Hebr. _shikmah_, 1 Chronicles 27:28) seems to be a generi... [ Continue Reading ]
_having a servant plowing_ The Parable of the Ploughing Slave is simply an illustration from daily life. The slave is working in the fields, at ploughing or pasturing, and when he comes back the master orders him to prepare his dinner, nor does he give him any special daily thanks for his ordinary d... [ Continue Reading ]
_Doth he thank that servant...?_ i.e. does he feel or express any _special gratitude_to him (ἔχει χάριν _)-_As a matter of fact, men are not in the habit of acknowledging the daily services of their dependents. Our Lord draws from this common circumstance of life a rebuke of the spirit which would s... [ Continue Reading ]
_when ye shall have done alt_ and this can never be, Psalms 143:2. Even if it could "non est _beneficium_sed _officium_facere quod debetis," Sen. _Controv._ We are unprofitable servants The same word for unprofitable occurs in Matthew 25:30; Romans 3:12. This verse, like many others (Isaiah 64:6; R... [ Continue Reading ]
11-19. The Cleansed Ten; the Thankless Nine. 11. _as he went to Jerusalem_ Rather, as they were on their way. The most natural place chronologically, for this incident would have been after Luke 9:56. St Luke places it here to contrast man's thanklessness to God with the sort of claim to thanks _fr... [ Continue Reading ]
_ten men that were lepers_ So in 2 Kings 7:3 we find _four_lepers together. The one Samaritan would not have been allowed to associate with the nine Jews had not leprosy obliterated religious distinctions, as it still sadly does in the leper-houses (Biut el Masakin, -Abodes of the Unfortunate") at J... [ Continue Reading ]
_when he saw them_ Jesus always listened _instantly_to the appeal of the leper, whose disease was the type of that worse moral leprosy which He specially came to cleanse.See on Luke 5:13. _he said_ Apparently he called out this answer to them while they were _still_at the required legal distance of... [ Continue Reading ]
_one of them_, _when he saw that he was healed_, _turned back_ The healing took place when they had shewn, by starting on their way to fulfil the command of Jesus, that they had faith. The Samaritan was on his way to his own priests at Gerizim. _with a loud voice_ Some see in this an implied contra... [ Continue Reading ]
_he was a Samaritan_ See on Luke 10:33. __... [ Continue Reading ]
_Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine_?] Literally, "_Were not the ten cleansed? but the ninewhere?"_What worse leprosy of superstition, ignorance, eager selfishness, or more glaring ingratitude had kept back the others? We do not know. __... [ Continue Reading ]
_hath made thee whole_ Rather, hath saved thee.... [ Continue Reading ]
20-37. The -When?" and -Where?" of the Kingdom of God. 16. _And when he was demanded of the Pharisees_ Literally, "_But being further questioned by the Pharisees_." _should come_ Literally, _"is coming_." They seem to have asked with impatient irony, -When is all this preparation and preaching to... [ Continue Reading ]
_for behold, the kingdom of God is within you intra vos est_, Vulg. As far as the Greek is concerned, this rendering of _entos_is defensible (comp. Matthew 23:26), and the spiritual truth expressed by such a rendering which implies that "the Kingdom of God is...righteousness and peace, and joy in t... [ Continue Reading ]
_The days will come_, _when ye shall desire_, &c. Compare Matthew 9:15, "The days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast, in those days." See, too, John 12:35; John 13:33; John 17:12. They were looking _forwards_with no realization of that rich _present_ble... [ Continue Reading ]
_See here; or_, _see there_ A vivid description of the perpetual Messianic excitements, which finally ceased in the days of Barcochba and the Rabbi Akibha. We find a similar warning in Luke 21:8. See Jos. _Antt._Luke 20:8; _B. J._11. 13, Luke 6:5; Tac. _Hist._v. 13. With the whole passage compare Ma... [ Continue Reading ]
_as the lightning_, _that lighteneth_ bright, swift, sudden, universal, irresistible.... [ Continue Reading ]
_But first must he suffer many things_ It was essential to our Lord's training of the Twelve at this period of His ministry, that He should again and again as in solemn _refrain_to all His teaching warn them of this coming end. See Luke 18:31.... [ Continue Reading ]
_as it was in the days of Noe_ as described in Genesis 7:11-23. The Second Advent should flame upon a sensual and unexpectant world.... [ Continue Reading ]
_They did eat_, _they drank_ Rather, THEY WERE EATING, THEY WERE DRINKING retaining the imperfects of the original.... [ Continue Reading ]
_in the days of Lot_ See Genesis 19:15-25; Judges 1:7; Ezekiel 16:46-56; Amos 4:11; Isaiah 13:19.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Even thus shall it be_ St Paul, no less than St Luke, had caught the echo of these solemn warnings. 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10.... [ Continue Reading ]
_upon the housetop_ the common Oriental place for cool and quiet resort. See on Luke 12:3; Luke 5:19. _his stuff_ i.e. his furniture or goods: "Therefore away to get our stuff aboard." Shaksp. _Com. of Errors._ let him not come down to take it away let him escape at once by the outer steps, Matt... [ Continue Reading ]
_Remember Lot's wife_ Genesis 19:26; Wis 10:7, "and a standing pillar of salt is a monument of an unbelieving soul." The warning is the same as in Luke 9:62. Turn no regretful gaze on a guilty and forsaken world.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whosoever shall seek to save his life_ See the same utterance, with slight verbal alterations, in Luke 9:24; John 12:25. St Paul's high confidence as to the issue of his own apparently ruined and defeated life, furnishes us with a beautiful comment, 2 Timothy 4:6-8. For -to save" _(sosai)_some MSS.... [ Continue Reading ]
_two men in one bed_ Not necessarily men; but human beings, e.g. man and wife. The numerals are of course masculine, because the man might be either the one -taken" or the one -left.... [ Continue Reading ]
_grinding together_ as to this day in the use of the common handmills of the East.... [ Continue Reading ]
_36_. _Two men shall be in the field_ This verse is of more than doubtful authenticity in this place, being omitted by nearly all the important MSS. It is probably interpolated from Matthew 24:40.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Where_, _Lord?_ This question also our Lord declines to answer. The Coming of God's Kingdom is not to be limited either by chronological or by geographical conditions. _Wheresoever the body_A] Rather, _the carcass_, although here the specific word for carcass (_ptoma_) is not used as in Matthew 24... [ Continue Reading ]