Luke 10:21-22

Vers. 21, 22. In that same hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight. 22 All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no one knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him. ” The πνεῦμα, the spirit, which is here spoken of, is undoubtedly that of Jesus Himself, as an element of His human Person (1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12; Romans 1:9). The spirit, in this sense, is in man the boundless capacity of receiving the communications of the Divine Spirit, and consequently the seat of all those emotions which have God and the things of God for their object (see on Luke 1:47). We think it necessary to read τῷ πνεύματι as dat. instr., and that the addition of τῳ ἁγίῳ (the holy) and of the prep. ἐν in some MSS. arises from the false application of this expression to the Spirit of God. ᾿Αγαλλιᾶσθαι, to exult, denotes an inner transport, which takes place in the same deep regions of the soul of Jesus as the opposite emotion expressed by the ἐμβριμᾶσθαι, to groan (John 11:33). This powerful influence of external events on the inner being of Jesus proves how thoroughly in earnest the Gospels take His humanity. ᾿Εξομολογεῖσθαι, strictly, to declare, confess, corresponds in the LXX. to הודה, to praise. Here it expresses a joyful and confident acquiescence in the ways of God.

The words Father and Lord indicate, the former the special love of which Jesus feels Himself to be the object in the dispensation which He celebrates, the latter the glorious sovereignty in virtue of which God dispenses with all human conditions of success, and looks for it only from His own power. The close of this verse has been explained in this way: “that whilst Thou hast hid..., Thou hast revealed...” The giving of thanks would thus be limited to the second fact. Comp. a similar form, Isaiah 1:2; Romans 6:17. But we doubt that this is to impair the depth of our Lord's thought. Did not God, in the way in which He was guiding the work of Jesus (in Israel), wish quite as positively the exclusion of the wise as the co-operation of the ignorant? The motive for this divine method is apparent from 1 Corinthians 1:23-31, in particular from Luke 10:29; Luke 10:31: “ that no flesh should glory; ” and, “ that he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. ” By this rejection the great are humbled, and see that they are not needed for God's work. On the other hand, the mean cannot boast of their co-operation, since it is evident that they have derived nothing from themselves. We may compare the saying of Jesus regarding the old and the new bottles (Luke 10:37-38). The wise were not to mingle the alloy of their own science with the divine wisdom of the gospel. Jesus required instruments prepared exclusively in His own school, and having no other wisdom than that which He had communicated to them from His Father (John 17:8). When He took a learned man for an apostle, He required, before employing him, to break him, as it were, by the experience of his folly. Jesus, in that hour of holy joy, takes account more definitely of the excellence of this divine procedure; and it is while contemplating its first effects that His heart exults and adores. “L'événement capital de l'histoire du monde,” carried out by people who had scarcely a standing in the human race! Comp. John 9:39.

The ναί, “ yea, Father,” reasserts strongly the acquiescence of Jesus in this paradoxical course. Instead of the nom. ὁ πατήρ, Father, it might be thought that He would have used the voc. πάτερ, O Father! as at the beginning of the verse. But the address does not need to be repeated. The nom. has another meaning: “It is as a Father that Thou art acting in thus directing my work.”

The ὅτι, for that or because, which follows, is usually referred to an idea which is understood: “yea, it is so, because...” But this ellipsis would be tame. It would be better in that case to supply the notion of a prayer: “Yea, let it be and remain so, since...!” But is it not more simple to take ὅτι as depending on ἐξομολογοῦμαι : “yea, assuredly, and in spite of all, I praise Thee, because that...” The phrase εὐδοκία ἔμπρ. σου is a Hebraism (צוֹן à לְרָ... נייַה ˜ ָוה׃ Ý לִפְ, ֵ Exo 28:38).

Gess thus sums up the thought of this verse: “To pride of knowledge, blindness is the answer; to that simplicity of heart which wishes truth, revelation.”