42 But G1161 one thing G1520 is G2076 needful: G5532 and G1161 Mary G3137 hath chosen G1586 that good G18 part, G3310 which G3748 shall G851 not G3756 be taken away G851 from G575 her. G846
My G1699 sheep G4263 hear G191 my G3450 voice, G5456 and I G2504 know G1097 them, G846 and G2532 they follow G190 me: G3427 And I G2504 give G1325 unto them G846 eternal G166 life; G2222 and G2532 they shall G622 never G3364 G1519 G165 perish, G622 neither G2532 G3756 shall G726 any G5100 man pluck G726 them G846 out of G1537 my G3450 hand. G5495
The LORD H3068 is the portion H4490 of mine inheritance H2506 and of my cup: H3563 thou maintainest H8551 my lot. H1486 The lines H2256 are fallen H5307 unto me in pleasant H5273 places; yea, I have a goodly H8231 heritage. H5159
And G2532 this G3778 is G2076 the record, G3141 that G3754 God G2316 hath given G1325 to us G2254 eternal G166 life, G2222 and G2532 this G3778 life G2222 is G2076 in G1722 his G846 Son. G5207 He that hath G2192 the Son G5207 hath G2192 life; G2222 and he that hath G2192 not G3361 the Son G5207 of God G2316 hath G2192 not G3756 life. G2222
For G1063 ye are dead, G599 and G2532 your G5216 life G2222 is hid G2928 with G4862 Christ G5547 in G1722 God. G2316 When G3752 Christ, G5547 who is our G2257 life, G2222 shall appear, G5319 then G5119 shall G5319 ye G5210 also G2532 appear G5319 with G4862 him G846 in G1722 glory. G1391
Who G5101 shall separate G5563 us G2248 from G575 the love G26 of Christ? G5547 shall tribulation, G2347 or G2228 distress, G4730 or G2228 persecution, G1375 or G2228 famine, G3042 or G2228 nakedness, G1132 or G2228 peril, G2794 or G2228 sword? G3162 As G2531 it is written, G1125 G3754 For thy G4675 sake G1752 we are killed G2289 all G3650 the day long; G2250 we are accounted G3049 as G5613 sheep G4263 for the slaughter. G4967 Nay, G235 in G1722 all G3956 these things G5125 we are more than conquerors G5245 through G1223 him that loved G25 us. G2248 For G1063 I am persuaded, G3982 that G3754 neither G3777 death, G2288 nor G3777 life, G2222 nor G3777 angels, G32 nor G3777 principalities, G746 nor G3777 powers, G1411 nor G3777 things present, G1764 nor G3777 things to come, G3195 Nor G3777 height, G5313 nor G3777 depth, G899 nor G3777 any G5100 other G2087 creature, G2937 shall be able G1410 to separate G5563 us G2248 from G575 the love G26 of God, G2316 which is in G1722 Christ G5547 Jesus G2424 our G2257 Lord. G2962
To G1519 an inheritance G2817 incorruptible, G862 and G2532 undefiled, G283 and G2532 that fadeth not away, G263 reserved G5083 in G1722 heaven G3772 for G1519 you, G5209 Who G3588 are kept G5432 by G1722 the power G1411 of God G2316 through G1223 faith G4102 unto G1519 salvation G4991 ready G2092 to be revealed G601 in G1722 the last G2078 time. G2540
And G2532 ye are G2075 complete G4137 in G1722 him, G846 which G3739 is G2076 the head G2776 of all G3956 principality G746 and G2532 power: G1849 In G1722 whom G3739 also G2532 ye are circumcised G4059 with the circumcision G4061 made without hands, G886 in G1722 putting off G555 the body G4983 of the sins G266 of the flesh G4561 by G1722 the circumcision G4061 of Christ: G5547 Buried with G4916 him G846 in G1722 baptism, G908 wherein G1722 G3739 also G2532 ye are risen with G4891 him through G1223 the faith G4102 of the operation G1753 of God, G2316 who G3588 hath raised G1453 him G846 from G1537 the dead. G3498 And G2532 you, G5209 being G5607 dead G3498 in G1722 your sins G3900 and G2532 the uncircumcision G203 of your G5216 flesh, G4561 hath he quickened together G4806 with G4862 him, G846 having forgiven G5483 you G5213 all G3956 trespasses; G3900 Blotting out G1813 the handwriting G5498 of ordinances G1378 that was against G2596 us, G2257 which G3739 was G2258 contrary G5227 to us, G2254 and G2532 took G142 it G846 out of G1537 the way, G3319 nailing G4338 it G846 to his cross; G4716 And having spoiled G554 principalities G746 and G2532 powers, G1849 he made a shew of them G1165 openly, G1722 G3954 triumphing over G2358 them G846 in G1722 it. G846 Let G2919 no G3361 man G5100 therefore G3767 judge G2919 you G5209 in G1722 meat, G1035 or G2228 in G1722 drink, G4213 or G2228 in G1722 respect G3313 of an holyday, G1859 or G2228 of the new moon, G3561 or G2228 of the sabbath G4521 days: Which G3739 are G2076 a shadow G4639 of things to come; G3195 but G1161 the body G4983 is of Christ. G5547 Let G2603 no man G3367 beguile G2603 you G5209 of your reward G2603 in G1722 a voluntary G2309 humility G5012 and G2532 worshipping G2356 of angels, G32 intruding into G1687 those things which G3739 he hath G3708 not G3361 seen, G3708 vainly G1500 puffed up G5448 by G5259 his G846 fleshly G4561 mind, G3563 And G2532 not G3756 holding G2902 the Head, G2776 from G1537 which G3739 all G3956 the body G4983 by G1223 joints G860 and G2532 bands G4886 having nourishment ministered, G2023 and G2532 knit together, G4822 increaseth G837 with the increase G838 of God. G2316
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Luke 10
Commentary on Luke 10 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 10
Lu 10:1-24. Mission of the Seventy Disciples, and Their Return.
As our Lord's end approaches, the preparations for the establishment of the coming Kingdom are quickened and extended.
1. the Lord—a becoming title here, as this appointment was an act truly lordly [Bengel].
other seventy also—rather, "others (also in number), seventy"; probably with allusion to the seventy elders of Israel on whom the Spirit descended in the wilderness (Nu 11:24, 25). The mission, unlike that of the Twelve, was evidently quite temporary. All the instructions are in keeping with a brief and hasty pioneering mission, intended to supply what of general preparation for coming events the Lord's own visit afterwards to the same "cities and places" (Lu 10:1) would not, from want of time, now suffice to accomplish; whereas the instructions to the Twelve, besides embracing all those to the Seventy, contemplate world-wide and permanent effects. Accordingly, after their return from this single missionary tour, we never again read of the Seventy.
2. The harvest, &c.—(See on Mt 9:37).
pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest—(See on Mt 9:38).
3-12. (See on Mt 10:7-16).
10. son of peace—inwardly prepared to embrace your message of peace. See note on "worthy," (see on Mt 10:13).
12-15. (See on Mt 11:20-24).
for Sodom—Tyre and Sidon were ruined by commercial prosperity; Sodom sank through its vile pollutions: but the doom of otherwise correct persons who, amidst a blaze of light, reject the Saviour, shall be less endurable than that of any of these.
16. He that, &c.—(See on Mt 10:40).
17. returned—evidently not long away.
Lord, &c.—"Thou hast exceeded Thy promise, for 'even the devils,'" &c. The possession of such power, not being expressly in their commission, as in that to the Twelve (Lu 9:1), filled them with more astonishment and joy than all else.
through thy name—taking no credit to themselves, but feeling lifted into a region of unimagined superiority to the powers of evil simply through their connection with Christ.
18. I beheld—As much of the force of this glorious statement depends on the nice shade of sense indicated by the imperfect tense in the original, it should be brought out in the translation: "I was beholding Satan as lightning falling from heaven"; that is, "I followed you on your mission, and watched its triumphs; while you were wondering at the subjection to you of devils in My name, a grander spectacle was opening to My view; sudden as the darting of lightning from heaven to earth, lo! Satan was beheld falling from heaven!" How remarkable is this, that by that law of association which connects a part with the whole, those feeble triumphs of the Seventy seem to have not only brought vividly before the Redeemer the whole ultimate result of His mission, but compressed it into a moment and quickened it into the rapidity of lightning! Note.—The word rendered "devils," is always used for those spiritual agents employed in demoniacal possessions—never for the ordinary agency of Satan in rational men. When therefore the Seventy say, "the devils [demons] are subject to us," and Jesus replies, "Mine eye was beholding Satan falling," it is plain that He meant to raise their minds not only from the particular to the general, but from a very temporary form of satanic operation to the entire kingdom of evil. (See Joh 12:31; and compare Isa 14:12).
19. Behold, I give you, &c.—not for any renewal of their mission, though probably many of them afterwards became ministers of Christ; but simply as disciples.
serpents and scorpions—the latter more venomous than the former: literally, in the first instance (Mr 16:17, 18; Ac 28:5); but the next words, "and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you," show that the glorious power of faith to "overcome the world" and "quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one," by the communication and maintenance of which to His people He makes them innocuous, is what is meant (1Jo 5:4; Eph 6:16).
20. rejoice not, &c.—that is, not so much. So far from forbidding it, He takes occasion from it to tell them what had been passing in His own mind. But as power over demons was after all intoxicating, He gives them a higher joy to balance it, the joy of having their names in Heaven's register (Php 4:3).
21, 22. Jesus … said, &c.—The very same sublime words were uttered by our Lord on a former similar occasion (see on Mt 11:25-27); but (1) There we are merely told that He "answered and said" thus; here, He "rejoiced in spirit and said," &c. (2) There it was merely "at that time" (or season) that He spoke thus, meaning with a general reference to the rejection of His gospel by the self-sufficient; here, "In that hour Jesus said," with express reference probably to the humble class from which He had to draw the Seventy, and the similar class that had chiefly welcomed their message. "Rejoice" is too weak a word. It is "exulted in spirit"—evidently giving visible expression to His unusual emotions; while, at the same time, the words "in spirit" are meant to convey to the reader the depth of them. This is one of those rare cases in which the veil is lifted from off the Redeemer's inner man, that, angel-like, we may "look into it" for a moment (1Pe 1:12). Let us gaze on it with reverential wonder, and as we perceive what it was that produced that mysterious ecstasy, we shall find rising in our hearts a still rapture—"Oh, the depths!"
23, 24. (See on Mt 13:16, 17).
Lu 10:25-37. Question of a Lawyer and Parable of the Good Samaritan.
25. tempted him—"tested him"; in no hostile spirit, yet with no tender anxiety for light on that question of questions, but just to see what insight this great Galilean teacher had.
26. What is written in the law—apposite question to a doctor of the law, and putting him in turn to the test [Bengel].
27. Thou shalt, &c.—the answer Christ Himself gave to another lawyer. (See on Mr 12:29-33).
28. he said, &c.—"Right; This do, and life is thine"—laying such emphasis on "this" as to indicate, without expressing it, where the real difficulty to a sinner lay, and thus nonplussing the questioner himself.
29. willing—"wishing," to get himself out of the difficulty, by throwing on Jesus the definition of "neighbor," which the Jews interpreted very narrowly and technically, as excluding Samaritans and Gentiles [Alford].
30. A certain man—a Jew.
from Jerusalem to Jericho—a distance of nineteen miles northeast, a deep and very fertile hollow—"the Temple of Judea" [Trench].
thieves—"robbers." The road, being rocky and desolate, was a notorious haunt of robbers, then and for ages after, and even to this day.
31, 32. came down a … priest … and a Levite—Jericho, the second city of Judea, was a city of the priests and Levites, and thousands of them lived there. The two here mentioned are supposed, apparently, to be returning from temple duties, but they had not learnt what that meaneth, 'I will have mercy and not sacrifice' [Trench].
saw him—It was not inadvertently that he acted.
came and looked—a further aggravation.
passed by—although the law expressly required the opposite treatment even of the beast not only of their brethren, but of their enemy (De 22:4; Ex 23:4, 5; compare Isa 58:7).
33. Samaritan—one excommunicated by the Jews, a byword among them, synonymous with heretic and devil (Joh 8:48; see on Lu 17:18).
had compassion—His best is mentioned first; for "He who gives outward things gives something external to himself, but he who imparts compassion and tears gives him something from his very self" [Gregory The Great, in Trench]. No doubt the priest and Levite had their excuses—It is not safe to be lingering here; besides, he's past recovery; and then, may not suspicion rest upon ourselves? So might the Samaritan have reasoned, but did not [Trench]. Nor did he say, He's a Jew, who would have had no dealings with me (Joh 4:9), and why should I with him?
34. oil and wine—the remedies used in such cases all over the East (Isa 1:6), and elsewhere; the wine to cleanse the wounds, the oil to assuage their smartings.
on his own beast—himself going on foot.
35. two pence—equal to two day's wages of a laborer, and enough for several days' support.
36. Which … was neighbour?—a most dexterous way of putting the question: (1) Turning the question from, "Whom am I to love as my neighbour?" to "Who is the man that shows that love?" (2) Compelling the lawyer to give a reply very different from what he would like—not only condemning his own nation, but those of them who should be the most exemplary. (3) Making him commend one of a deeply hated race. And he does it, but it is almost extorted. For he does not answer, "The Samaritan"—that would have sounded heterodox, heretical—but "He that showed mercy on him." It comes to the same thing, no doubt, but the circumlocution is significant.
37. Go, &c.—O exquisite, matchless teaching! What new fountains of charity has not this opened up in the human spirit—rivers in the wilderness, streams in the desert! What noble Christian institutions have not such words founded, all undreamed of till that wondrous One came to bless this heartless world of ours with His incomparable love—first in words, and then in deeds which have translated His words into flesh and blood, and poured the life of them through that humanity which He made His own! Was this parable, now, designed to magnify the law of love, and to show who fulfils it and who not? And who did this as never man did it, as our Brother Man, "our Neighbor?" The priests and Levites had not strengthened the diseased, nor bound up the broken (Eze 34:4), while He bound up the brokenhearted (Isa 61:1), and poured into all wounded spirits the balm of sweetest consolation. All the Fathers saw through the thin veil of this noblest of stories, the Story of love, and never wearied of tracing the analogy (though sometimes fancifully enough) [Trench]. Exclaims Gregory Nazianzen (in the fourth century), "He hungered, but He fed thousands; He was weary, but He is the Rest of the weary; He is saluted 'Samaritan' and 'Demoniac,' but He saves him that went down from Jerusalem and fell among thieves," &c.
Lu 10:38-42. Martha and Mary.
38. certain village—Bethany (Joh 11:1), which Luke so speaks of, having no farther occasion to notice it.
received him … her house—The house belonged to her, and she appears throughout to be the older sister.
39. which also—"who for her part," in contrast with Martha.
sat—"seated herself." From the custom of sitting beneath an instructor, the phrase "sitting at one's feet" came to mean being a disciple of any one (Ac 22:3).
heard—rather, "kept listening" to His word.
40. cumbered—"distracted."
came to him—"presented herself before Him," as from another apartment, in which her sister had "left her to serve (or make preparation) alone."
carest thou not … my sister, &c.—"Lord, here am I with everything to do, and this sister of mine will not lay a hand to anything; thus I miss something from Thy lips, and Thou from our hands."
bid her, &c.—She presumes not to stop Christ's teaching by calling her sister away, and thus leaving Him without His one auditor, nor did she hope perhaps to succeed if she had tried.
41. Martha, Martha—emphatically redoubling upon the name.
careful and cumbered—the one word expressing the inward worrying anxiety that her preparations should be worthy of her Lord; the other, the outward bustle of those preparations.
many things—"much service" (Lu 10:40); too elaborate preparation, which so engrossed her attention that she missed her Lord's teaching.
42. one thing, &c.—The idea of "Short work and little of it suffices for Me" is not so much the lower sense of these weighty words, as supposed in them, as the basis of something far loftier than any precept on economy. Underneath that idea is couched another, as to the littleness both of elaborate preparation for the present life and of that life itself, compared with another.
chosen the good part—not in the general sense of Moses' choice (Heb 11:25), and Joshua's (Jos 24:15), and David's (Ps 119:30); that is, of good in opposition to bad; but, of two good ways of serving and pleasing the Lord, choosing the better. Wherein, then, was Mary's better than Martha's? Hear what follows.
not be taken away—Martha's choice would be taken from her, for her services would die with her; Mary's never, being spiritual and eternal. Both were true-hearted disciples, but the one was absorbed in the higher, the other in the lower of two ways of honoring their common Lord. Yet neither despised, or would willingly neglect, the other's occupation. The one represents the contemplative, the other the active style of the Christian character. A Church full of Marys would perhaps be as great an evil as a Church full of Marthas. Both are needed, each to be the complement of the other.