1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, turned back from the Jordan, and was brought in the Spirit to the wilderness,
2 forty days being tempted by the Devil, and he did not eat anything in those days, and they having been ended, he afterward hungered,
3 and the Devil said to him, `If Son thou art of God, speak to this stone that it may become bread.'
4 And Jesus answered him, saying, `It hath been written, that, not on bread only shall man live, but on every saying of God.'
5 And the Devil having brought him up to an high mountain, shewed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time,
6 and the Devil said to him, `To thee I will give all this authority, and their glory, because to me it hath been delivered, and to whomsoever I will, I do give it;
7 thou, then, if thou mayest bow before me -- all shall be thine.'
8 And Jesus answering him said, `Get thee behind me, Adversary, for it hath been written, Thou shalt bow before the Lord thy God, and Him only thou shalt serve.'
9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, `If the Son thou art of God, cast thyself down hence,
10 for it hath been written -- To His messengers He will give charge concerning thee, to guard over thee,
11 and -- On hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou mayest dash against a stone thy foot.'
12 And Jesus answering said to him -- `It hath been said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.'
13 And having ended all temptation, the Devil departed from him till a convenient season.
14 And Jesus turned back in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a fame went forth through all the region round about concerning him,
15 and he was teaching in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he hath been brought up, and he went in, according to his custom, on the sabbath-day, to the synagogue, and stood up to read;
17 and there was given over to him a roll of Isaiah the prophet, and having unfolded the roll, he found the place where it hath been written:
18 `The Spirit of the Lord `is' upon me, Because He did anoint me; To proclaim good news to the poor, Sent me to heal the broken of heart, To proclaim to captives deliverance, And to blind receiving of sight, To send away the bruised with deliverance,
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.'
20 And having folded the roll, having given `it' back to the officer, he sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were gazing on him.
21 And he began to say unto them -- `To-day hath this writing been fulfilled in your ears;'
22 and all were bearing testimony to him, and were wondering at the gracious words that are coming forth out of his mouth, and they said, `Is not this the son of Joseph?'
23 And he said unto them, `Certainly ye will say to me this simile, Physician, heal thyself; as great things as we heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country;'
24 and he said, `Verily I say to you -- No prophet is accepted in his own country;
25 and of a truth I say to you, Many widows were in the days of Elijah, in Israel, when the heaven was shut for three years and six months, when great famine came on all the land,
26 and unto none of them was Elijah sent, but -- to Sarepta of Sidon, unto a woman, a widow;
27 and many lepers were in the time of Elisha the prophet, in Israel, and none of them was cleansed, but -- Naaman the Syrian.'
28 And all in the synagogue were filled with wrath, hearing these things,
29 and having risen, they put him forth without the city, and brought him unto the brow of the hill on which their city had been built -- to cast him down headlong,
30 and he, having gone through the midst of them, went away.
31 And he came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the sabbaths,
32 and they were astonished at his teaching, because his word was with authority.
33 And in the synagogue was a man, having a spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a great voice,
34 saying, `Away, what -- to us and to thee, Jesus, O Nazarene? thou didst come to destroy us; I have known thee who thou art -- the Holy One of God.'
35 And Jesus did rebuke him, saying, `Be silenced, and come forth out of him;' and the demon having cast him into the midst, came forth from him, having hurt him nought;
36 and amazement came upon all, and they were speaking together, with one another, saying, `What `is' this word, that with authority and power he doth command the unclean spirits, and they come forth?'
37 and there was going forth a fame concerning him to every place of the region round about.
38 And having risen out of the synagogue, he entered into the house of Simon, and the mother-in-law of Simon was pressed with a great fever, and they did ask him about her,
39 and having stood over her, he rebuked the fever, and it left her, and presently, having risen, she was ministering to them.
40 And at the setting of the sun, all, as many as had any ailing with manifold sicknesses, brought them unto him, and he on each one of them `his' hands having put, did heal them.
41 And demons also were coming forth from many, crying out and saying -- `Thou art the Christ, the Son of God;' and rebuking, he did not suffer them to speak, because they knew him to be the Christ.
42 And day having come, having gone forth, he went on to a desert place, and the multitudes were seeking him, and they came unto him, and were staying him -- not to go on from them,
43 and he said unto them -- `Also to the other cities it behoveth me to proclaim good news of the reign of God, because for this I have been sent;'
44 and he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Luke 4
Commentary on Luke 4 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 4
Lu 4:1-13. Temptation of Christ.
(See on Mt 4:1-11.)
Lu 4:14-32. Jesus Entering on His Public Ministry, Makes a Circuit of Galilee—Rejection at Nazareth.
Note.—A large gap here occurs, embracing the important transactions in Galilee and Jerusalem which are recorded in Joh 1:29-4:54, and which occurred before John's imprisonment (Joh 3:24); whereas the transactions here recorded occurred (as appears from Mt 4:12, 13) after that event. The visit to Nazareth recorded in Mt 13:54-58 (and Mr 6:1-6) we take to be not a later visit, but the same with this first one; because we cannot think that the Nazarenes, after being so enraged at His first display of wisdom as to attempt His destruction, should, on a second display of the same, wonder at it and ask how He came by it, as if they had never witnessed it before.
16. as his custom was—Compare Ac 17:2.
stood up for to read—Others besides rabbins were allowed to address the congregation. (See Ac 13:15.)
18, 19. To have fixed on any passage announcing His sufferings (as Isa 53:1-12), would have been unsuitable at that early stage of His ministry. But He selects a passage announcing the sublime object of His whole mission, its divine character, and His special endowments for it; expressed in the first person, and so singularly adapted to the first opening of the mouth in His prophetic capacity, that it seems as if made expressly for this occasion. It is from the well-known section of Isaiah's prophecies whose burden is that mysterious "Servant of the Lord," despised of man, abhorred of the nation, but before whom kings on seeing Him are to arise, and princes to worship; in visage more marred than any man and His form than the sons of men, yet sprinkling many nations; laboring seemingly in vain, and spending His strength for naught and in vain, yet Jehovah's Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and be His Salvation to the ends of the earth (Isa 49:1-26, &c.). The quotation is chiefly from the Septuagint version, used in the synagogues.
19. acceptable year—an allusion to the jubilee year (Le 25:10), a year of universal release for person and property. (See also Isa 49:8; 2Co 6:2.) As the maladies under which humanity groans are here set forth under the names of poverty, broken-heartedness, bondage, blindness, bruisedness (or crushedness), so, as the glorious Healer of all these maladies, Christ announces Himself in the act of reading it, stopping the quotation just before it comes to "the day of vengeance," which was only to come on the rejecters of His message (Joh 3:17). The first words, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me," have been noted since the days of the Church Fathers, as an illustrious example of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost being exhibited as in distinct yet harmonious action in the scheme of salvation.
20. the minister—the chazan, or synagogue-officer.
all eyes … fastened on Him—astounded at His putting in such claims.
21. began to say, &c.—His whole address was just a detailed application to Himself of this and perhaps other like prophecies.
22. gracious words—"the words of grace," referring both to the richness of His matter and the sweetness of His manner (Ps 45:2).
Is not this, &c.—(See on Mt 13:54-56). They knew He had received no rabbinical education, and anything supernatural they seemed incapable of conceiving.
23. this proverb—like our "Charity begins at home."
whatsoever, &c.—"Strange rumors have reached our ears of Thy doings at Capernaum; but if such power resides in Thee to cure the ills of humanity, why has none of it yet come nearer home, and why is all this alleged power reserved for strangers?" His choice of Capernaum as a place of residence since entering on public life was, it seems, already well known at Nazareth; and when He did come thither, to give no displays of His power when distant places were ringing with His fame, wounded their pride. He had indeed "laid his hands on a few sick folk and healed them" (Mr 6:5); but this seems to have been done quite privately the general unbelief precluding anything more open.
24. And he said, &c.—He replies to the one proverb by another, equally familiar, which we express in a rougher form—"Too much familiarity breeds contempt." Our Lord's long residence in Nazareth merely as a townsman had made Him too common, incapacitating them for appreciating Him as others did who were less familiar with His everyday demeanor in private life. A most important principle, to which the wise will pay due regard. (See also Mt 7:6, on which our Lord Himself ever acted.)
25-27. But I tell you, &c.—falling back for support on the well-known examples of Elijah and Elisha (Eliseus), whose miraculous power, passing by those who were near, expended itself on those at a distance, yea on heathens, "the two great prophets who stand at the commencement of prophetic antiquity, and whose miracles strikingly prefigured those of our Lord. As He intended like them to feed the poor and cleanse the lepers, He points to these miracles of mercy, and not to the fire from heaven and the bears that tore the mockers" [Stier].
three years and six months—So Jas 5:17, including perhaps the six months after the last fall of rain, when there would be little or none at any rate; whereas in 1Ki 18:1, which says the rain returned "in the third year," that period is probably not reckoned.
26, 27. save … saving—"but only." (Compare Mr 13:32, Greek.)
Sarepta—"Zarephath" (1Ki 17:9), a heathen village between Tyre and Sidon. (See Mr 7:24.)
28, 29. when they heard these things—these allusions to the heathen, just as afterwards with Paul (Ac 22:21, 22).
29. rose up—broke up the service irreverently and rushed forth.
thrust him—with violence, as a prisoner in their hands.
brow, &c.—Nazareth, though not built on the ridge of a hill, is in part surrounded by one to the west, having several such precipices. (See 2Ch 25:12; 2Ki 9:33.) It was a mode of capital punishment not unusual among the Romans and others. This was the first insult which the Son of God received, and it came from "them of His own household!" (Mt 10:36).
30. passing through the midst, &c.—evidently in a miraculous way, though perhaps quite noiselessly, leading them to wonder afterwards what spell could have come over them, that they allowed Him to escape. (Similar escapes, however, in times of persecution, are not unexampled.)
31. down to Capernaum—It lay on the Sea of Galilee (Mt 4:13), whereas Nazareth lay high.
Lu 4:33-37. Demoniac Healed.
33. unclean—The frequency with which this character of impurity is applied to evil spirits is worthy of notice.
cried out, &c.—(See Mt 8:29; Mr 3:11).
35. rebuked them, &c.—(See on Lu 4:41).
thrown him, &c.—See on Mr 9:20.
36. What a word—a word from the Lord of spirits.
Lu 4:38-41. Peter's Mother-in-law and Many Others, Healed.
(See on Mt 8:14-17.)
41. suffered them not to speak—The marginal reading ("to say that they knew him to be Christ") here is wrong. Our Lord ever refused testimony from devils, for the very reason why they were eager to give it, because He and they would thus seem to be one interest, as His enemies actually alleged. (See on Mt 12:24, &c.; see also Ac 16:16-18.)
Lu 4:42-44. Jesus Sought Out at Morning Prayer, and Entreated to Stay, Declines from the Urgency of His Work.
See on Mr 1:35-39, where we learn how early He retired, and how He was engaged in solitude when they came seeking Him.
42. stayed him—"were staying Him," or sought to do it. What a contrast to the Gadarenes! The nature of His mission required Him to keep moving, that all might hear the glad tidings (Mt 8:34).
43. I must, &c.—but duty only could move Him to deny entreaties so grateful to His spirit.