FOURTH CYCLE: FROM THE MISSION OF THE TWELVE TO THE DEPARTURE FROM GALILEE, LUKE 9:1-50. This cycle describes the close of the Galilean ministry. It embraces six narrations: 1 _st._ The mission of the Twelve, and the impression made on Herod by the public activity of Jesus (Luke 9:1-9). 2 _d._ The m... [ Continue Reading ]
1 _st. Luke 9:1-2_. _The Mission._ There is something greater than preaching this is to make preachers; there is something greater than performing miracles this is to impart the power to perform them. It is this new stage which the work of Jesus here reaches. He labours to raise His apostles up to... [ Continue Reading ]
2 _d. Luke 9:3-5_. _Their Instructions._ “ _And He said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece._ 4. _And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide and thence depart._ 5. _And whosoever will not receive you, w... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 4. On their arrival at a city, they were to settle down in the first house to which they obtained access (εἰς ἣν ἄν, _into whatever house_), which, however, was not to exclude prudence and well-ascertained information (Matthew); and, once settled in a house, they were to keep to it, and try to... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 5. The gospel does not force itself upon men; it is an elastic power, penetrating wherever it finds access, and retiring wherever it is repulsed. This was Jesus' own mode of acting all through His ministry (Luke 8:37; John 3:22). The Jews were accustomed, on their return from heathen countries... [ Continue Reading ]
3 _d. Luke 9:6_. _The Result._ Διά, in διήρχοντο (_they went through_), has for its complement the country in general, and denotes the _extent_ of their mission. Κατά, which is distributive, expresses the accomplishment of it in detail: “staying in _every_ little town.” Only Mark makes mention here... [ Continue Reading ]
4 _th. Luke 9:7-9_. _The Fears of Herod._ This passage in Matthew (ch. 14) is separated by several Chapter s from the preceding narrative; but it is connected with it both chronologically and morally by Luke and Mark (Mark 6:14 et seq.). It was, in fact, the stir created by this mission of the Twel... [ Continue Reading ]
1 _st. Luke 9:10-11_. _The Occasion._ According to Luke, the motive which induced Jesus to withdraw into a desert place was His desire for more privacy with His disciples, that He might talk with them of their experiences during their mission. Mark relates, with a slight difference, that His object... [ Continue Reading ]
2. _The Multiplication of the Loaves: Luke 9:10-17_. This narrative is the only one in the entire Galilean ministry which is common to the four evangelists (Matthew 14:13 et seq.; Mark 6:30 et seq.; John 6). It forms, therefore, an important mark of connection between the synoptical narrative and Jo... [ Continue Reading ]
2 _d. Luke 9:12-15_. _The Preparations._ It was absolutely impossible to find sufficient food in this place for such a multitude; and Jesus feels Himself to some extent responsible for the circumstances. This miracle was not, therefore, as Keim maintains, a purely ostentatious prodigy. But in order... [ Continue Reading ]
3 _d. Luke 9:16-17_. _The Repast._ The pronouncing of a blessing by Jesus is an incident preserved in all four narratives. It must have produced a special impression on all the four witnesses. Each felt that this act contained the secret of the marvellous power displayed on this occasion. To bless... [ Continue Reading ]
1 _st. Luke 9:18-20_. _The Christ._ According to Mark, the following conversation took place during the journey (ἐν τῇ ὁδῲ); Mark thus gives precision to the vaguer indication of Matthew. The name of Caesarea Philippi is wanting in Luke's narrative. Will criticism succeed in finding a dogmatic motiv... [ Continue Reading ]
3. _First Announcement of the Passion: Luke 9:18-27_. Up to the first multiplication of the loaves, it is impossible to make out any continuous synchronism between the synoptics, as the following table of the series of preceding incidents shows: Numbers might be thrown into a bag and taken out aga... [ Continue Reading ]
2 _d. Luke 9:21-22_. _The suffering Christ._ The expression of Luke, _He straitly charged and commanded them_, is very energetic. The general reason for this prohibition is found in the following announcement of the rejection of the Messiah, as is proved by the participle εἰπών, _saying._ They were... [ Continue Reading ]
We can quite understand that the people could not yet bear the disclosure of a suffering Messiah; but Jesus might make them participate in it indirectly, by initiating them into the _practical consequences_ of this fact for His true disciples. To describe the moral crucifixion of His servants, Luke... [ Continue Reading ]
are the confirmation (_for_) of this _Maschal_, and first of all, Luke 9:25-26, of the first proposition. Jesus supposes, Luke 9:25, the act of _saving one's own life_, accomplished with the most complete success...., amounting to a gain of the whole world. But in this very moment the master of this... [ Continue Reading ]
1 _st. Luke 9:28-29_. _The Glory of Jesus._ The three narratives show that there was an interval of a week between the transfiguration and the first announcement of the sufferings of Jesus, with this slight difference, that Matthew and Mark say _six days after_, whilst Luke says _about eight days af... [ Continue Reading ]
4. _The Transfiguration: Luke 9:28-36_. There is but one allusion to this event in the whole of the N. T. (2 Peter 1), which proves that it has no immediate connection with the work of salvation. On the other hand, its historical reality can only be satisfactorily established in so far as we succee... [ Continue Reading ]
2 _d. Luke 9:30-33_. _The Appearing of Moses and Elijah._ Not only do we sometimes see the eye of the dying lighted up with celestial brightness, but we hear him conversing with the dear ones who have gone before him to the heavenly home. Through the gate which is opened for him, heaven and earth h... [ Continue Reading ]
3 _d. Luke 9:34-36_. _The Divine Voice._ Here we have the culminating point of this scene. As the last sigh of the dying Christian is received by the Lord, who comes for him (John 14:3; Acts 7:55-56), so the presence of God is manifested at the moment of the glorification of Jesus. The cloud is no... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Request._ The sleep with which the disciples were overcome, as well as Peter's offer to Jesus, Luke 9:33, appear to us to prove that the transfiguration had taken place either in the evening or during the night. Jesus and His three companions came down from the mountain the next morning. A gre... [ Continue Reading ]
5. _The Cure of the Lunatic Child: Luke 9:37-43_ a. The following narrative is closely connected with the preceding in the three Syn. (Matthew 17:14 et seq.; Mark 9:14 et seq.). There was a moral contrast which had helped tradition to keep the chronological thread.... [ Continue Reading ]
_a. The Answer._ The severe exclamation of Jesus: _Faithless and perverse generation_, etc., has been applied to the disciples (Meyer); to the scribes (Calvin); to the father (Chrysostom, Grotius, Neander, De Wette); to the people (Olshausen). The father in Mark acknowledges his unbelief; the scribe... [ Continue Reading ]
1 _st. The Second Announcement of the Passion: Luke 9:43; Luke 9:43_. We may infer from the two other Syn. (Matthew 17:22-23; Mark 9:30-32), more especially from Mark, that it was during the return from Caesarea Philippi to Capernaum that Jesus had this second conversation with His disciples respect... [ Continue Reading ]
6. _The three last Incidents of Jesus' Galilean Ministry:_ 9.43b-50.... [ Continue Reading ]
3 _d. The Dissenting Disciple: Luke 9:49-50_. Only in some very rare cases does John play an active part in the Gospel history. But he appears to have been at this time in a state of great excitement; comp. the incident which immediately follows (Luke 9:54 et seq.), and another a little later (Matth... [ Continue Reading ]
FOURTH PART: JOURNEY FROM GALILEE TO JERUSALEM, LUKE 9:51 TO LUKE 19:28. A great contrast marks the synoptical narrative: that between the ministry in Galilee, and the passion week at Jerusalem. According to Matthew (Matthew 19:1 to Matthew 20:34) and Mark (chap. 10), the short journey from Caperna... [ Continue Reading ]
FIRST CYCLE: THE DEPARTURE FROM GALILEE. First Period of the Journey, Luke 9:51 to Luke 13:21. 1. _Unfavourable Reception by the Samaritans: Luke 9:51-56_. VER. 51. _Introduction._ The style of this verse is peculiarly impressive and solemn. The expressions ἐγένετο... καὶ ἐστήριξε πρόσωπον στηρίζ... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Refusal._ This tentative message of Jesus does not prove, as Meyer and Bleek think, that He had the intention of penetrating farther into Samaria, and of going directly to Jerusalem in that way. He desired to do a work in the north of that province, like that which had succeeded so admirably i... [ Continue Reading ]
1 _st. Luke 9:57-58_. Luke says, _a certain man;_ in Matthew it is a scribe. Why this difference, if they follow the same document? The homage of the man breathed a blind confidence in his own strength. The answer of Jesus is a call to self-examination. To follow such a Master _whithersoever He go... [ Continue Reading ]
2. _The Three Disciples: Luke 9:57-62_. Two of these short episodes are also connected in Matthew (Matthew 8); but by him they are placed at the time when Jesus is setting out on His excursion into Decapolis. Meyer and Weizsäcker prefer the situation indicated by Matthew. The sequel will show what... [ Continue Reading ]
2 _d. Luke 9:59-60_. Luke says, _another_ (individual); Matthew, _another of His disciples._ The scribe had offered himself; this latter is addressed by Jesus. Luke alone indicates the contrast which the succeeding conversation explains. Here we have no more a man of impulse, presumptuous and with... [ Continue Reading ]
3 _d. Luke 9:61-62_. This third instance belongs only to Luke. It is, as it were, the synthesis of the two others. This man offers himself, like the first; and yet he temporizes like the second. The word ἀποτάσσεσθαι, strictly, _to leave one's place in the ranks_, rather denotes here separation fro... [ Continue Reading ]