Luke 10:1-24

THE MISSION OF THE SEVENTY. Peculiar to Luke. The labors of this large body of disciples were brief, their mission temporary. The incident has no bearing upon questions of ecclesiastical position. Our Lord certainly had enough followers to admit of this appointment Luke mentions both the sending out of the twelve and of the Seventy; the fact that the instructions are much the same grows out of the similarity of the errand. But the discourse here recorded relates to present duties alone, while that (in Matthew 10) addressed to the Twelve has in view a permanent office, etc. This temporary character of their duty will account for our not hearing of them again. Tradition and conjecture have been busy in suggesting different persons included in their number (such as Luke himself, Mark, Matthias, etc.).

THE TIME AND PLACE of this mission. (1.) Robinson places it before the journey to Jerusalem (chap. Luke 9:5) and in Galilee. But Luke 10:1 naturally points to a period after starting to Jerusalem, and intimates that our Lord was making an extended journey at this time. Now the accounts of Matthew and Mark indicate that He had encountered such opposition in Galilee as to hinder such extended preaching (Matthew 16:1; Mark 9:30) This view places the return of the Seventy after the Feast of Tabernacles near Jerusalem, admitting that their journey, which began in Galilee, ended in Judea. But they were scarcely absent so long a time. The woes on the Galilean cities (Luke 10:15) do not prove that the discourse was uttered near them, but rather that our Lord had already taken His final departure from them. (2) Lange thinks, that the mission took place after the rejection in Samaria, but was directed to Samaria alone; that our Lord Himself did not enter further into that country. But the Seventy were sent before Him. Besides had the mission been exclusively to Samaria, Luke, the friend and companion of the Apostle to the Gentiles, would probably have mentioned it. (3) Others (Van Oosterzee, etc.) think, our Lord returned again to Galilee after the Feast of Tabernacles, and that this mission occurred then and there. But of such return we have no evidence, and chap. Luke 9:51 looks like a final departure; besides, as remarked above, Galilee was not now a promising field for such labor. (4) We therefore conclude: that this sending out occurred on the journey toward Jerusalem; that this journey was not direct, but led through part of Samaria, possibly through part of Perea, and certainly through part of Judea; that the Seventy went in advance along this route, returning after a short interval. It is indeed doubtful whether this occurred before or after the visit to Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:1-14), but in all probability before: our Lord leaving His followers to make that sudden visit.