XI. (1) AS HE WAS PRAYING IN A CERTAIN PLACE. — The facts of the case as here narrated, the common practice of the Jews, and the analogy of the prayers in John 11:41; Matthew 26:39, and, we may add, of the thanksgiving in Luke 10:21; Matthew 11:25, all lead to the conclusion that our Lord prayed al... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN YE PRAY, SAY,... — The reproduction, with only a verbal variation here and there, which may well have been the work of the reporter, of what had been given in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:9), is every way significant. That which had been given to the multitude was enough for them. If they... [ Continue Reading ]
(2-4) OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN. — See Notes on Matthew 6:9. The following variations may be noticed. (1) The better MSS. omit “our” and “which art in heaven,” and begin with the simple “Father.” It was, of course, natural enough that it should be, in course of time, adapted by transcribers to... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH OF YOU SHALL HAVE A FRIEND ...? — The illustration, we can hardly call it a parable, is peculiar to St. Luke, and, as setting forth the power of prayer, is specially characteristic of him. (See _Introduction._) The familiar tone, as of one appealing to each man’s natural good-will, and the dra... [ Continue Reading ]
TROUBLE ME NOT. — As afterwards in the parable of the Unjust Judge, so here, the illustrative matter cannot be pressed into an interpretation. It seems, indeed, to have been purposely so stated that it could only suggest an _à fortiori_ argument. Thus man might answer, but so does not God. If prayer... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE OF HIS IMPORTUNITY. — Literally, _because of his shamelessness._ The word is not used elsewhere in the New Testament, and exactly expresses the pertinacity that knows no restraint.... [ Continue Reading ]
(9-13) ASK, AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN YOU. — See Notes on Matthew 7:7; but note (1) the greater impressiveness of the opening words, “And I say unto you,... “as connected with the previous illustration; and (2) the addition of the “scorpion” to the “serpent,” as though the recent combination of the two... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW MUCH MORE SHALL YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER ...? — We note a change here also, the one highest gift of the “Holy Spirit” taking the place of the wider and less definite “good things” in Matthew 7:11. The variation is significant, as belonging to a later stage of our Lord’s teaching, and especially as s... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WAS CASTING OUT A DEVIL. — See Notes on Matthew 9:32.... [ Continue Reading ]
(17-23) BUT HE, KNOWING THEIR THOUGHTS. — St. Luke seems here to bring together into one narrative two incidents which in St. Matt. (Matthew 9:32; Matthew 12:22) appear as separated. The points of resemblance, the dumbness in both cases, both followed by the whisper that Jesus cast out devils by Bee... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I WITH THE FINGER OF GOD... — Note the substitution of this language for “by the Spirit of God,” in Matthew 12:28, and its connection with the use by the older prophets of “the hand of the Lord,” to indicate the state which issued in prophetic inspiration (Ezekiel 1:3; Ezekiel 37:1), and with “th... [ Continue Reading ]
(21-23) WHEN A STRONG MAN ARMED KEEPETH HIS PALACE. — See Notes on Matthew 12:29. The only noticeable variations are the use of “palace” for “house;” of the strong man being “armed;” of the “armour” or “panoply” (the same word as in Ephesians 6:13) in which he trusted; of the “division of the spoils... [ Continue Reading ]
(24-26) WHEN THE UNCLEAN SPIRIT IS GONE OUT OF A MAN. — See Notes on Matthew 12:43. Here the only variations are (1) the omission of the house being “empty,” and (2) of the application of the parable to “this wicked generation.”... [ Continue Reading ]
A CERTAIN WOMAN OF THE COMPANY. — The incident is peculiar to St. Luke, and, like many other of the facts recorded by him, seems to have been derived from the company of devout women (Luke 8:1; see _Introduction_) with whom he came into contact. It is interesting as being the first direct fulfilment... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT HEAR THE WORD OF GOD. — The term thus used clearly designates here the message of the Kingdom spoken by our Lord Himself, as in the parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:20). In its wider application, it of course includes, though it must not be confined to it, the record of that sp... [ Continue Reading ]
(29-32) THIS IS AN EVIL GENERATION: THEY SEEK A SIGN. — See Notes on Matthew 12:38. The words here spoken are clearly an answer to the demand for a sign in Luke 11:16. In St. Matthew the demand and the answer appear in close sequence. The variations in St. Luke are (1) the omission of the explanati... [ Continue Reading ]
NO MAN, WHEN HE HATH LIGHTED A CANDLE,... — See Note on Matthew 5:15. Here also it seems, on the whole, more probable that we have a portion of our Lord’s previous teaching repeated by Him in almost identical terms, than that a fragment of that teaching has either been torn from its proper context b... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LIGHT OF THE BODY IS THE EYE. — See Note on Matthew 6:22. In some respects the sequence of thought in St. Luke differs from that in St. Matthew, and seems somewhat closer. In the Sermon on the Mount, the company of Christ’s disciples are the light, and each of them is as the lamp on its proper s... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE HEED THEREFORE THAT THE LIGHT... — Better, _See to it whether the light that is in thee be darkness._ This takes the place in St. Luke’s report of St. Matthew’s (Luke 6:23) “If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” The warning is one which calls men to self-scrutin... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THY WHOLE BODY THEREFORE BE FULL OF LIGHT. — The statement reads at first like an identical proposition. “If thy whole body be full of light, it shall be full of light all over.” The apparent truism is, however, the most expressive utterance of a truth. If the “whole body” — life in all its vario... [ Continue Reading ]
A CERTAIN PHARISEE BESOUGHT HIM TO DINE WITH HIM. — On the act, and the feeling which it implied, see Note on Luke 7:36. The word translated “dine” implies a morning or noon-tide meal, as distinct from the supper of the evening.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE MARVELLED THAT HE HAD NOT FIRST WASHED. — See Notes on Matthew 15:2; Mark 7:3. Here the word “washed” (literally, though of course not in the technical sense, _baptized_) implies actual immersion, or, at least, a process that took in the whole body. Mark 7:4 shows that this was the Pharisaic stan... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW DO YE PHARISEES MAKE CLEAN THE OUTSIDE OF THE CUP. — See Note on Matthew 23:25. The verses that follow stand in the relation to the great discourse against the Pharisees in that chapter, as the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6) does to the Sermon on the Mount. Here, too, we recognise another instance... [ Continue Reading ]
YE FOOLS, DID NOT HE THAT MADE THAT WHICH IS WITHOUT..? — The question is peculiar to St. Luke, and implies a latent parabolic application of the previous words. Outward, positive ceremonial law, ordering the cleansing of the outside of the cup and of the platter, the eternal moral law requiring tru... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT RATHER GIVE ALMS OF SUCH THINGS AS YE HAVE. — This, too, is peculiar to St. Luke. In the underlying principle of its teaching it sweeps away the whole fabric of the law of ceremonial purity, as the words of St. Matthew 15:10 had, on different grounds, done before. The distinction between the two... [ Continue Reading ]
WOE UNTO YOU, PHARISEES! FOR YE TITHE MINT. — See Note on Matthew 23:23. Here, again, we note minor variations — “rue and all manner of herbs,” for St. Matthew’s “anise and cummin;” “judgment and the love of God,” for “the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith” — sufficient to sho... [ Continue Reading ]
YE LOVE THE UPPERMOST SEATS IN THE SYNAGOGUES. — See Notes on Matthew 23:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
WOE UNTO YOU, SCRIBES AND PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES! — The better MSS. give simply, _Woe unto you, Pharisees,_ (See Note on Matthew 23:27.) YE ARE AS GRAVES WHICH APPEAR NOT. — The comparison, though drawn from the same object, presents a different phase of it. In St. Matthew the contrast is between th... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN ANSWERED ONE OF THE LAWYERS. — See Note on Matthew 22:35 for the term “lawyer.” We note here the sense at once of distinctness and of class fellowship. Though something more than a scribe, he feels that he stands or falls with them.... [ Continue Reading ]
YE LADE MEN WITH BURDENS GRIEVOUS TO BE BORNE. — See Note on Matthew 23:4.... [ Continue Reading ]
YE BUILD THE SEPULCHRES OF THE PROPHETS. — See Note on Matthew 23:29. St. Luke omits the reference, which we find in St. Matthew, to the “sepulchres of the righteous.”... [ Continue Reading ]
TRULY YE BEAR WITNESS THAT YE ALLOW. — The better MSS. give, _Truly are ye witnesses, and ye allow._ The word “allow” has, as always in the English Bible, the meaning of “approving of,” “consenting to,” “having pleasure in.” The last phrase is the rendering of the same Greek word in Romans 1:32, and... [ Continue Reading ]
(49-51) THEREFORE ALSO SAID THE WISDOM OF GOD. — The words that follow are in the main the same as those of Matthew 23:34, where see Notes. There are, however, some remarkable variations, each of which suggests some questions of interest. (1) The words here appear at first sight as if they were a qu... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BLOOD OF ALL THE PROPHETS. — Here again we note a variation from “all the righteous blood” of Matthew 23:35.... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM THE BLOOD OF ABEL.... — See Note on Matthew 23:35. We note the absence here of the description “Zacharias, son of Barachias,” which causes so much perplexity in St. Matthew’s report. So far as it goes, the omission favours the view that the additional words were inserted by the reporter of our... [ Continue Reading ]
WOE UNTO YOU, LAWYERS! — The “woe” in this case is uttered against those who were, by their very calling, the professed interpreters of the Law. Its form rests on the fact that each scribe or “doctor of the law,” in the full sense of the term, was symbolically admitted to his office by the delivery... [ Continue Reading ]
AND AS HE SAID THESE THINGS UNTO THEM. — The better MSS. give, “When He had gone forth from thence...,” as though Jesus had left the house after uttering the “woe” of Luke 11:52, and was followed by the crowd of angry and embittered disputants. TO PROVOKE HIM TO SPEAK. — The Greek verb has literall... [ Continue Reading ]
LAYING WAIT FOR HIM. — The better MSS. give the verse in a somewhat simpler form, _laying wait to catch something out of His mouth._ The words throw light on the subsequent question about paying tribute to Cæsar (Matthew 22:15; Mark 12:13), and show it to have been the acting out of a pre-concerted... [ Continue Reading ]