Luke 18:9-14

3. The Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican: Luke 18:9-14.

Vers. 9-14. This parable is peculiar to Luke. Who are those τινές, certain, to whom it is addressed? They cannot be Pharisees. Luke would have named them, as at Luke 16:14; and Jesus would not have presented to them as an example, in a parable, one of themselves, while designating him expressly in this character. Bleek thinks that they were disciples of Jesus. But Luke would have equally designated them (Luke 16:1). They were therefore probably members of the company following Jesus, who had not yet openly declared for Him, and who manifested a haughty distance to certain sinners, known to be such, who were in the company with them; comp. Luke 19:7.

The word σταθείς, standing erect (Luke 18:11), indicates a posture of assurance, and even boldness (comp. standing afar off, Luke 18:13). Πρὸς ἑαυτόν does not depend on σταθείς : “standing aside, at a distance, from the vulgar,” it would have required καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν (Meyer), but on προσηύχετο : “ he prayed, speaking thus to himself...” It was less a prayer in which he gave thanks to God, than a congratulation which he addressed to himself. True thanksgiving is always accompanied by a feeling of humiliation. The Pharisees fasted on the Monday and Thursday of every week. Κτᾶσθαι denotes the act of acquiring rather than that of possessing; it therefore refers here to the produce of the fields (Luke 11:42).

To strike the breast: an emblem of the stroke of death which the sinner feels that he has merited at the hand of God. The heart is struck, as the seat of personal life and of sin. Λέγω ὑμῖν (Luke 18:14): “I tell you, strange as it may appear...” The idea of justification, that is to say, of a righteousness bestowed on the sinner by a divine sentence, belongs even to the O. T. Comp. Genesis 15:6; Isaiah 50:8; Isaiah 53:11.

In the received reading ἢ ἐκεῖνος, ἤ is governed by μᾶλλον, rather, understood. The suppression of the adverb rather serves to prevent the idea that the Pharisee also received his share of justification. In the reading ἢ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος (more strongly supported than the others), ἤ is explained in the same way, and γάρ has, as is often the case, an interrogative value: “ For think you that he (the Pharisee) could be justified?” This somewhat difficult turn of expression has occasioned the Alex. correction παῤ ἐκεῖνον.

Our Lord loves to close His parables with axioms formally expressing the fundamental laws of moral life: God will overthrow all self-exaltation; but He will turn in love to all sincere humiliation.

Undoubtedly, if Luke's object was to point out in the ministry of Jesus the historical foundations for St. Paul's teaching, this piece corresponds most exactly to his intention. But no argument can be drawn therefrom contrary to the truth of the narrative. For the idea of justification by faith is one of the axioms not only of the teaching of Jesus, but of that of the O. T. (comp. besides the passages quoted, Hab 2:4).