X. (1) AFTER THESE THINGS THE LORD APPOINTED OTHER SEVENTY ALSO. — Some MSS. of importance give “seventy-two,” but the evidence preponderates in favour of the reading “seventy.” The number had a threefold significance. (1) Seventy elders had been appointed by Moses to help him in his work of teachin... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HARVEST TRULY IS GREAT. — See Note on Matthew 9:37. The verses that follow contain, as might have been expected from the analogous circumstances, much in common with those spoken on the mission of the Twelve. We have here, as in the sermons on the Mount and on the Plain, an example of our Lord’s... [ Continue Reading ]
AS LAMBS AMONG WOLVES. — See Note on Matthew 10:16.... [ Continue Reading ]
CARRY NEITHER PURSE, NOR SCRIP. — See Notes on Matthew 10:9; Mark 6:8.... [ Continue Reading ]
(5-7) PEACE BE TO THIS HOUSE. — See Notes on Matthew 10:12. St. Luke gives, what is only implied in St. Matthew, the very form of the salutation.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IN THE SAME HOUSE REMAIN. — See Note on Matthew 10:11. THE LABOURER IS WORTHY OF HIS HIRE. — See Note on Matthew 10:10. The exact reproduction of the words by St. Paul in 1 Timothy 5:18, as a citation from “the Scripture,”’ is every way interesting. The Apostle could scarcely have failed to have... [ Continue Reading ]
EAT SUCH THINGS AS ARE SET BEFORE YOU. — The precise form of the precept is peculiar to St. Luke, but the spirit is the same as that of the words which had been spoken to the Twelve. The Evangelist preachers were to accept whatever was provided for them by a willing host, and to avoid even the appea... [ Continue Reading ]
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS COME NIGH UNTO YOU. — Here again the form of the words is peculiar to St. Luke. This was to be the burden of those who, as preachers, were, in the strictest sense, the heralds of the great King.... [ Continue Reading ]
INTO WHATSOEVER CITY YE ENTER, AND THEY RECEIVE YOU NOT. — See Notes on Matthew 10:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
BE YE SURE OF THIS, THAT THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS COME NIGH UNTO YOU. — There is something very solemnly impressive in the fact that this is the message to be uttered alike to the believing and the unbelieving. Now, as of old, the prophets of the Lord had to utter their proclamation, whether men would... [ Continue Reading ]
IT SHALL BE MORE TOLERABLE IN THAT DAY FOR SODOM. — See Note on Matthew 10:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
(13-16) WOE UNTO THEE, CHORAZIN! — See Notes on Matthew 11:21, where the words appear as spoken at an earlier period. We have again to choose between the two alternative views, (1) that the words were spoken but once, and floated in men’s memories without any very definite note of time or place, and... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THAT HEARETH YOU HEARETH ME. — See Note on Matthew 10:40. Another fragment of our Lord’s teaching meets us under the same conditions as before.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE SEVENTY RETURNED AGAIN WITH JOY. — It is obvious from the immediate sequence of the two facts that the mission of the Seventy was, as stated above, confined within narrow limits of space and time. LORD, EVEN THE DEVILS ARE SUBJECT UNTO US. — Better, _the demons._ The tone in which the disci... [ Continue Reading ]
I BEHELD SATAN AS LIGHTNING FALL FROM HEAVEN. — The tense of the first Greek verb implies continuous action: _I was beholding Satan as he fell_... While they were working their Master had been following them in spirit, gazing, as it were, on each stage of their victorious conflict. Their triumph ove... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, I GIVE UNTO YOU... — The better MSS. have, “I have given,” as of something already bestowed in its completeness. In the power to “tread on serpents and scorpions,” we have a manifest reference to the words of Psalms 91:13. Those words stand in closest sequence with the promise which had been... [ Continue Reading ]
NOTWITHSTANDING IN THIS REJOICE NOT. — Above all exercise of power was the consciousness of the divine life, the feeling that they had a Father in heaven who had, to speak after the manner of men, registered their names as citizens of His kingdom. That was the great blessing for them, and for all be... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THAT HOUR JESUS REJOICED IN SPIRIT. — The words that follow are found also in Matthew 11:25 (see Notes on those verses), but the opening clause that introduces them is peculiar to St. Luke, and is noticeable as the one instance where the word “rejoiced,” which appears in the Magnificat (Luke 1:47... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THINGS ARE DELIVERED TO me. — The marginal reading, which prefixes “And turning to His disciples” to this verse instead of the next, can hardly be regarded as more than a transcriber’s error.... [ Continue Reading ]
(23-24) BLESSED ARE THE EYES WHICH SEE THE THINGS THAT YE SEE... — Another instance of repeated words, St. Matthew reporting them as spoken after the parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:16. See Note on that verse).... [ Continue Reading ]
MANY PROPHETS AND KINGS.... — There is a slight verbal difference here as compared with St. Matthew’s report, which gives “prophets and righteous men.”... [ Continue Reading ]
AND, BEHOLD, A CERTAIN LAWYER STOOD UP. — On the word “lawyer” and its difference from the more generic “scribe,” see Note on Matthew 22:35. Here, as there, the “tempting” does not necessarily imply hostile purpose. It was simply a test-question to see if the new Teacher was sound in His view of the... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST ANSWERED RIGHT. — The acceptance of the lawyer’s answer as theoretically true was part of the method of our Lord’s teaching. The words that followed, “This do, and thou shalt live,” were those of a Prophet who knew what was in the man, and read the secrets of his heart, and saw how little... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT HE, WILLING TO JUSTIFY HIMSELF... — The question implied a conscience half-awakened and uneasy. It is characteristic that no doubt seems to cross his mind as to his love of God. There he felt that he was safe. But there were misgivings as to the second commandment, and, as if feeling that there... [ Continue Reading ]
A CERTAIN MAN WENT DOWN. — Better, _was going down._ We enter here upon the first of a series of parables, which differ from those in St. Matthew in having more the character of actual human histories, illustrating a truth, rather than mere similitudes (“parables” in the usual sense of the word) com... [ Continue Reading ]
BY CHANCE.... — The passage is the only one in the New Testament in which the phrase occurs. Our Lord seems to use it as with a touch of what we have elsewhere termed irony. It seemed so casual, as such opportunities always do to men who neglect them, and yet it was, in the purpose of God, the test-... [ Continue Reading ]
LIKEWISE A LEVITE. — The passage is memorable as the only mention of Levites in the Gospels. He is represented as at once better and worse than the priest — better in that he does not altogether turn aside, but “comes” and looks; worse in that his second thoughts are at variance with his first, and... [ Continue Reading ]
A CERTAIN SAMARITAN. — For the chief facts connected with the Samaritans and their relation to the Jews, see Note on Luke 9:52. There is something noticeable in the change of word. It was not likely that the hated alien should be coming down from Jerusalem. His journey would probably be to, or from,... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WENT TO HIM. — Every detail is in harmony with the tender pity described in the previous verse. All fear of risk from robbers, or from the police of Rome, who might take him for a robber, is put aside; the “oil and wine,” which had been provided for personal refreshment, are freely given to be u... [ Continue Reading ]
TWO PENCE — _i.e., two denarii,_ according to Matthew 20:2 the average wages of a labourer for two days; or, taking the estimate of Mark 6:37, enough for a meal of twenty-five men. It was therefore a sufficient and liberal provision for all probable contingencies. This, however, was not, in the Sama... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH NOW OF THESE THREE ...? — There is a certain subtle discernment in the form of the question. The point under discussion was as to whom the Jew should look on as his neighbour. It is answered indirectly by the narrative, which showed who had proved himself a neighbour to the Jew. The Samaritan... [ Continue Reading ]
GO, AND DO THOU LIKEWISE. — This was the practical, though not the formal, answer to the question of the lawyer. If he acted in the spirit of the Samaritan, he would need no “nicely-calculated less or more” of casuistic distinctions as to who was and who was not his neighbour. Fellowship in the same... [ Continue Reading ]
HE ENTERED INTO A CERTAIN VILLAGE. — The identity of the two names that follow, and, we may add, of the characters connected with the names, leaves hardly room for doubt that the village thus spoken of was Bethany. (See Note on Matthew 21:1.) St. Luke’s reason for not giving the name is probably con... [ Continue Reading ]
A SISTER CALLED MARY, WHICH ALSO SAT AT JESUS’ FEET. — The better MSS. give, “at the Lord’s feet.” Few readers can fail to notice the identity of character here and in the entirely independent narratives of John 11:12. There also Martha is active (John 11:20) and conspicuous in serving (John 12:2);... [ Continue Reading ]
MARTHA WAS CUMBERED. — Literally, _was distracted;_ drawn hither and thither by conflicting cares. ABOUT MUCH SERVING. — We may probably infer from this that our Lord had been invited as an honoured guest, and that Mary had been asked to meet Him; and, so far, the narrative agrees with what is sugg... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JESUS ANSWERED. — The better MSS. give, “And _the Lord_ answered.” (See Note on Luke 7:13.) MARTHA, MARTHA. — We note a special tenderness of reproof in the two-fold utterance of the name, of which this and the like iteration of “Simon, Simon,” in Luke 22:31, are the only examples in our Lord’s... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT ONE THING IS NEEDFUL. — Some of the better MSS. present a singular various-reading, _There is need of few things, or of one only._ It is obvious that this might be taken either literally or spiritually. They might mean (1) that He who spoke, and the others who were coming, needed not the many th... [ Continue Reading ]