Luke 10:13-16

“ Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. 15 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell. 16 He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth Him that sent me. ”

The name of Chorazin is not found either in the O. T. or in Josephus. But Jewish tradition mentions it frequently, either under the name of Chorazaïm, as producing a cheese of inferior quality, or under that of Choraschin, as situated in Naphtali.

According to Eusebius (Onomasticon), Chorazin was situated 12 miles (4 leagues)

Jerome says, certainly by mistake, in his translation, 2 miles from Capernaum. This situation corresponds exactly with the ruins which still bear the name of Bir-Kirâzeh, a little to the north of Tel-Hum, if we place Capernaum in the plain of Gennesaret (vol. i. p. 242).

We do not know any of the numerous miracles which this declaration implies. Of those at Bethsaida we know only one. On the important consequences which this fact has for criticism, see vol. i. p. 339. The interpretation which M. Colani has attempted to give to the word δυνάμεις in this passage works of holiness will not bear discussion.

It is impossible to render well into English the image employed by Jesus. The two cities personified are represented as sitting clothed in sackcloth, and covered with ashes.

The πλήν, excepting, is related to an idea which is understood: “Tyre and Sidon shall also be found guilty; only, they shall be so in a less degree than you.”

The tone rises (Luke 10:15) as the mind of Jesus turns to the city which had shared most richly in that effusion of grace of which Galilee has just been the subject

Capernaum. It was there that Jesus had fixed His residence; He had made it the new Jerusalem, the cradle of the kingdom of God. It is difficult to understand how commentators could have referred the words, exalted to heaven, to the commercial prosperity of the city, and Stier to its alleged situation on a hill by the side of the lake! This whole discourse of Jesus moves in the most elevated sphere. The point in question is the privilege which Jesus bestowed on the city by making it His city (Matthew 9:1). Notwithstanding the authority of Tischendorf, we unhesitatingly prefer the received reading ἡ ὑψωθεῖσα, “ which art exalted,” to that of some Alex. μὴ ὑψωθήσῃ, “ Wilt thou be exalted? No, thou wilt come down...” The meaning which this reading gives is tame and insipid. It has arisen simply from the fact that the final μ of Capernaum was by mistake joined to the following ἡ, which, thus become a μή, necessitated the change from ὑψωθεῖσα to ὑψωθήσῃ. This variation is also found in Matthew, where the MSS. show another besides, ἣ ὑψώθης, which gives the same meaning as the T. R.

As Heaven is here the emblem of the highest divine favours, Hades is that of the deepest abasement. In the O. T. it is the place of silence, where all earthly activity ceases, where all human grandeur returns to its nothingness (Ezekiel 31, 32).

Matthew places this declaration in the middle of the Galilean ministry, immediately after the embassy sent by John the Baptist. We can understand without difficulty the association of ideas which led the evangelist to connect the one of those pieces with the other. The impenitence of the people in respect of the forerunner was the prelude to their unbelief in respect of Jesus. But does not the historical situation indicated by Luke deserve the preference? Is such a denunciation not much more intelligible when the mission of Jesus to those cities was entirely finished? Luke adds a saying, Luke 10:16, which, by going back on the thought in the first part of the discourse, brings out its unity, the position taken up with respect to the messengers of Jesus and their preaching, shall be equivalent to a position taken up with respect to Jesus, nay, with respect to God Himself. What a grandeur, then, belongs to the work which He confides to them!