Luke 14:1-6

1 st. Luke 14:1-6.

To accept an invitation to the house of a Pharisee, after the previous scenes, was to do an act at once of courage and kindness. The host was one of the chief of his sect. There is no proof of the existence of a hierarchy in this party; but one would naturally be formed by superiority of knowledge and talent. The interpretation of Grotius, who takes τῶν Φαρισαίων as in apposition to τῶν ἀρχόντων, is inadmissible. The guests, it is said, watched Jesus. Luke 14:2 indicates the trap which had been laid for Him; and ἰδού, behold, marks the time when this unlooked-for snare is discovered to the eyes of Jesus. The picture is taken at the moment. The word ἀποκριθείς, answering (Luke 14:3), alludes to the question implicitly contained in the sick man's presence: “Wilt thou heal, or wilt thou not heal?” Jesus replies by a counter question, as at Luke 6:9. The silence of His adversaries betrays their bad faith. The reading ὄνος, ass, in the Sinaiticus and some MSS. (Luke 14:5), arises no doubt from the connection with βοῦς, ox, or from the similar saying, Luke 13:15. The true reading is υἱός, son: “If thy son, or even thine ox only...” In this word son, as in the expression daughter of Abraham (Luke 13:16), there is revealed a deep feeling of tenderness for the sufferer. We cannot overlook a correspondence between the malady (dropsy) and the supposed accident (falling into a pit). Comp. Luke 13:15-16, the correspondence between the halter with which the ox is fastened to the stall, and the bond by which Satan holds the sufferer in subjection. Here again we find the perfect suitableness, even in the external drapery, which characterizes the declarations of our Lord. In Matthew 12:11 this figure is applied to the curing of a man who has a withered hand. It is less happy, and is certainly inexact.