CHAPTER 13. JUDGMENT TO COME. This chapter continues the sombre judicial strain of Luke 12:54-59. Beginning with a general reference to the impending doom of Israel, as foreshadowed by a reported tragedy which had befallen certain individuals, it ends with a specific prediction of the destruction... [ Continue Reading ]
παρῆσαν δέ, etc.: The introduction to the gruesome story naturally implies a temporal connection between what follows and what goes before: _i.e._, some present when Jesus spoke as reported in Luke 12:54-59 took occasion to tell Him this piece of recent news, recalled to their minds by what He had s... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Galilean tragedy_, peculiar to Lk., as is the greater part of what follows, on to Luke 18:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀποκριθεὶς : Jesus answered to an implied question. Those who told the story expected Him to make some remarks on it; not such doubtless as He did make. δοκεῖτε, think ye; probably that was just what they did think. The fate of the Galileans awakened superstitious horror prone to impute to the victi... [ Continue Reading ]
οὐχί, an emphatic “no,” followed by a solemn “I say to you”. The prophetic mood is on the speaker. He reads in the fate of the few the coming doom of the whole nation. ὁμοίως, in a similar way. ὡσαύτως, the reading in T.R., is stronger = in the _same_ way. Jesus expresses Himself with greater intens... [ Continue Reading ]
Jesus refers to another tragic occurrence, suggesting that He was acquainted with both. His ears were open to all current news, and His mind prompt to point the moral. The fact stated, otherwise unknown to us. ὀφειλέται, word changed, in meaning the same as ἁμαρτωλοὶ, moral debtors paying their debt... [ Continue Reading ]
Συκῆν εἶχέν τις : a fig tree, quite appropriate and common in corners of a vineyard, yet not the main plant in such a place; selected rather than a vine to represent Israel, by way of protest against assumed inalienable privilege. “Perish,” Jesus had said once and again (Luke 13:3; Luke 13:5). Some... [ Continue Reading ]
_Parable of the barren fig tree_, peculiar to Lk., probably extemporised to embody the moral of the preceding narratives; takes the place in Lk. of the cursing of the fig tree in Mt. and Mk.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀμπελουργόν, the vine-dresser (ἄμπελος, ἔργον) here only in N.T. ἰδοὺ, lo! as of one who has a right to complain. τρία ἔτη, three years, reckoned not from the planting of the tree (it is three years after planting that it begins to bear fruit), but from the time that it might have been expected in o... [ Continue Reading ]
τοῦτο τὸ ἔτος, one year more; he has not courage to propose a longer time to an impatient owner. κόπρια (neuter plural from adjective κόπριος), dung stuffs. A natural proposal, but sometimes fertility is better promoted by starving, cutting roots, so preventing a tree from running to wood.... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰς τὸ μέλλον : if it bear _the coming year_ well (εὖ ἔχει understood). ἐκκόψεις, if not, _thou shalt cut it down_ thou, not I. It depends on the master, though the vinedresser tacitly recognises that the decision will be just. He sympathises with the master's desire for fruit. Of course when the ba... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐν τοῖς σάββασι : _may_ mean on Sabbaths (Hahn, who refers to the discriminating use of singular and plural in Lk.) and imply a course of instruction in a particular synagogue for weeks.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Cure in a synagogue on a Sabbath day_, peculiar to Lk.... [ Continue Reading ]
πνεῦμα ἀσθενείας : the Jews saw the action of a foreign power in every form of disease which presented the aspect of the sufferer's will being overmastered. In this case the woman was bent and could not straighten herself when she tried. συγκύπτουσα, bent together, here only in N.T. εἰς τὸ παντελές... [ Continue Reading ]
προσεφώνησε : Jesus, ever prompt to sympathise, called her to Him when His eye lit upon the bent figure. ἀπολέλυσαι : perfect for future, the thing as good as done; spoken to cheer the downcast woman while she approaches. The cure was consummated by touch when she came up to Jesus (Luke 13:13), wher... [ Continue Reading ]
But religious propriety in the person of the ruler of the synagogue is once more shocked: it is a _Sabbath_ cure. ἔλεγε τῷ ὄχλῳ : He spoke _to_ the audience _at_ Jesus plausibly enough; yet, as so often in cases of religious zeal, from mixed motives. Christ's power and the woman's praise annoyed him... [ Continue Reading ]
ὑποκριταί : plural less personal than the singular (T.R.), yet severe enough, though directed against the class. The case put was doubtless according to the prevailing custom, and so stated as to make the _work_ done prominent (λύει, looses, that one bit of work: ἀπάγων, leading the animal loosed to... [ Continue Reading ]
The case of the woman described so as to suggest a parallel and contrast: a daughter of Abraham _versus_ an ox or ass; bound by _Satan_, not merely by a chain round the neck; for eighteen years, not for a few hours. The contrast the basis of a strong _a fortiori_ argument. The reply is thoroughly in... [ Continue Reading ]
The religious leaders and the people behave according to their character; the former ashamed, not as convinced but as confounded, the latter delighted both by the works and by the words of Jesus.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The parables of the mustard seed and the leaven_ (Matthew 13:31-33; Mark 4:30-32). Lk. may have introduced these parables here either because the joy of the people was in his view the occasion of their being spoken, Jesus taking it as a good omen for the future, or because he found in his source th... [ Continue Reading ]
κῆπον, garden, more exact indication of place than in Mt. and Mk. δένδρον, a tree; an exaggeration, it remains an herb, though of unusually large size.... [ Continue Reading ]
The parable of the leaven is given as in Mt. The point of both is that the Kingdom of Heaven, insignificant to begin with, will become great. In the mind of the evangelist both have probably a reference to Gentile Christianity.... [ Continue Reading ]
is a historical notice serving to recall the general situation indicated in Luke 9:51. So again in Luke 17:11. “Luke gives us to understand that it is always the same journey which goes on with incidents analogous to those of the preceding cycle,” Godet. Hahn, however, maintains that here begins a n... [ Continue Reading ]
_Are there few that be saved?_ This section is a mosaic of words found dispersed in the pages of Mt.: the _strait gate_ (Luke 13:24) in Matthew 7:14; _the pleading for admission_ (Luke 13:26-27) recalls Matthew 7:21-23; _the exclusion from the kingdom_ (Luke 13:28-29) reproduces Matthew 8:11-12; the... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰ ὀλ. οἱ σωζ.: εἰ introduces a direct question as in Matthew 12:10 and Luke 22:49 : are those who are being saved few? πρὸς αὐτούς, to _them_, not to the questioner merely but to all present, as the reply was of general concern.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀγωνίζεσθε εἰς.: stronger than Mt.'s εἰσέλθετε, suggesting the idea of a struggle or prize-fight (1 Corinthians 9:25) in which only a few can win, so virtually answering the question in the affirmative. διὰ τ. σ. θύρας, through the narrow door (πύλης, gate, in Mt.): no interpretation of the door her... [ Continue Reading ]
Here begins a new parable and a new sentence, though some (Beza, Lachmann, W. and H [115]) connect with what goes before, putting a comma after ἰσχύσουσιν. Against this is not only the change from the third person to the second (ἄρξησθε), but the fact that the cause of exclusion is different: not th... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse is viewed by many as the apodosis of a long sentence beginning with ἀφʼ οὗ (Luke 13:25), and the emotional character of the passage, in which parable and moral are blended, goes far to justify them. But it is better on the whole to find here a new start. ἐνώπιόν σου, before thee, either,... [ Continue Reading ]
οὐκ οἶδα, etc.: the same answer, iteration _cum emphasi_ (Bengel). ἀπόστητε, etc.: nearly as in Matthew 7:23. This answer goes entirely out of the parable into the moral sphere. In the parable exclusion is due to arriving too late; in the spiritual sphere to character. ἀδικίας, Mt. has ἀνομίαν, lawl... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐκεῖ, there; _then_, according to Euthy. Zig. (τότε, ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ καιρῷ). Kuinoel also takes it as an adverb of time in accordance with Hebraistic usage, and Bornemann cites instances from Greek authors of the same use of adverbs of place as adverbs of time. But _there_ is not only verbally correct,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Concluding reflections_.... [ Continue Reading ]
points to an aggravation of the misery of the outcasts: men coming from every quarter of the globe to join the festive company and finding admission. The shut door and the too late arrival are now out of view, and for the private house of the parable is substituted the Kingdom of God which it repres... [ Continue Reading ]
The same remark applies to this saying. As it stands here it refers to Jews as the first who become last, and to Gentiles as the last who become first, and the distinction between first and last is not one of degree, but absolute = within and without.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἔξελθε : Luke 17:11 shows that Lk. did not attach critical importance to this incident as a cause of Christ's final departure from Galilee. θέλει σε ἀποκτεῖναι : was this a lie, an inference, a message sent by Herod in order to intimidate, or a fact which had somehow come to the knowledge of the rep... [ Continue Reading ]
_Warning against Herod by Pharisees_, peculiar to Lk., but Mk. (Mark 3:6; Mark 8:15) has prepared us for combined action of court and religious coteries against Jesus similar to that against Amos (Luke 7:10-13), both alike eager to be rid of Him as endangering their power.... [ Continue Reading ]
τῇ ἀλώπεκι ταύτῃ, this fox; the fox revealed in this business, ostensibly the king, but in a roundabout way the would-be friends may be hit at (Euthy. Zig.). The quality denoted by the name is doubtless cunning, though there is no clear instance of the use of the fox as the type of cunning in the Sc... [ Continue Reading ]
πλὴν, for the rest, or, on the other hand, introducing the other side of the case = I must work still for a little space, yet I must keep moving on southwards, as the proper place for a prophet to die is Jerusalem, not Galilee. The second note of time (σήμερον) coincides with the first: work and mov... [ Continue Reading ]
_Apostrophe to Jerusalem_ (Matthew 23:37-38), suitably introduced here as in sympathy with the preceding utterance, though not likely to have been spoken at this time and place, as indeed it is not alleged to have been. It is given nearly as in Mt. τὴν νοσσιὰν (for τὰ νοσσία in Mt.) = a nest (_nidum... [ Continue Reading ]