6. _Prayer: Luke 11:1-13_. Continuing still to advance leisurely, the Lord remained faithful to His habit of prayer. He was not satisfied with that constant direction of soul toward His Father, to which the meaning of the command, _Pray without ceasing_, is often reduced. There were in His life spec... [ Continue Reading ]
This account embraces: 1 _st._ The model of Christian prayer (Luke 11:1-4); 2 _d._ An encouragement to pray thus, founded on the certainty of being heard (Luke 11:5-13). 1 _st. Luke 11:1-4_. _The Model of Prayer._ “ _And it came to pass, that as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one... [ Continue Reading ]
This parable is peculiar to Luke. Holtzmann says: “Taken from Λ.” But why in that case has Matthew omitted it, he who reproduces from Λ both the preceding and following verses (Luke 7:7-11)? The form of expression is broken after Luke 11:7. It is as if the importuned friend were reflecting what he s... [ Continue Reading ]
2 _d. Luke 11:5-13_. _The Efficacy of Prayer._ After having declared to His own the essential objects to be prayed for, Jesus encourages them thus to pray by assuring them of the efficacy of the act. He proves this (1) by an example, that of the indiscreet friend (Luke 11:5-8); (2) by common experi... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 11:9-10. “ _And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you._ 10. _For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened._ ” Luke 11:9 formally expresses the application o... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?_ 12. _Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?_ 13. _If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more... [ Continue Reading ]
1 _st. Luke 11:14-16_. ῏Ην ἐκβάλλων, _He was occupied in casting out._ The word κωφός, _dull_, may mean _deaf_ or _dumb;_ according to the end of the verse, it here denotes dumbness. On the expression _dumb devil_, see vol. i. p. 434. Bleek justly concludes from this term, that the dumbness was of a... [ Continue Reading ]
7. _The Blasphemy of the Pharisees: Luke 11:14-36_. We have already observed (see on Luke 6:11) how remarkably coincident in time are the accusations called forth in Galilee by the healings on the Sabbath, and those which are raised about the same period at Jerusalem by the healing of the impotent m... [ Continue Reading ]
2 _d. The First Discourse: Luke 11:17-26_. It is divided into two parts: Jesus refutes this blasphemous explanation of His cures (Luke 11:17-19); He gives their true explanation (Luke 11:20-26).... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But He, knowing their thoughts, said unto them: Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and one house falls upon another. Luke 11:18_. _If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. Luke 11:19... [ Continue Reading ]
After having by this new _argumentum ad hominem_ refuted the supposition of His adversaries, Jesus gives the true explanation of His cures by contrasting the picture of one of those expulsions which He works (Luke 11:20-22) with that of a cure performed by the exorcists (Luke 11:23-26). VERS. 20-22.... [ Continue Reading ]
4 _th. Luke 11:29-36_. _The Second Discourse._ This is the answer of Jesus to the demand which was addressed to Him to work a miracle proceeding from heaven (Luke 11:16). Strauss does not think that Jesus could have reverted to so secondary a question after the extremely grave charge with which He h... [ Continue Reading ]
8. _The Dinner at a Pharisee's House:_ Luke 11:37 _to Luke 12:12_. Agreeably to the connection established by Luke himself (Luke 12:1), we join the two pieces Luke 11:37-54 and Luke 12:1-12 in one whole. Here, so far as Galilee is concerned, we have the culminating point of the struggle between Jesu... [ Continue Reading ]
1 _st. To the Pharisees: Luke 11:37-44_. VERS. 37 AND 38. _The Occasion._ This Pharisee had probably been one of the hearers of the previous discourse; perhaps one of the authors of the accusation raised against Jesus. He had invited Jesus along with a certain number of his own colleagues (Luke 11:... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 11:45-46. _Literalism._ “ _Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also._ 46. _And He said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers._ ”... [ Continue Reading ]
2 _d. To the Scribes: Luke 11:45-54_. A remark made by a scribe gives a new turn to the conversation. The Pharisees were only a religious party; but the scribes, the experts in the law, formed a profession strictly so called. They were the learned, _the wise_, who discovered nice prescriptions in th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Persecuting Orthodoxy._ “ _Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them._ 48. _Truly ye are witnesses that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres._ 49. _Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will s... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 52: _The Monopoly of Theology._ “ _Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered._ ” The religious despotism with which Jesus in the third place charges the scribes, is a natural consequence of their... [ Continue Reading ]
VERS. 53 AND 54: _Historical Conclusion._ These verses describe a scene of violence, perhaps unique, in the life of Jesus. Numerous variations prove the very early alteration of the text. According to the reading of the principal Alex., _And when He had gone thence_, this scene must have taken place... [ Continue Reading ]