{"commentary":{"id":"adam-clarke","name":"Adam Clarke Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Clarke","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Adam Clarke Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"92e28c9363c876d215e296f2fe04abb3ab7e34a2aacebdf06bd62ae79c6e3dba","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":57,"totalNumberOfChapters":854,"totalNumberOfVerses":13318,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"LUK","commentaryId":"adam-clarke","name":"Luke","commonName":"Luke","introduction":"Preface to the Gospel According to St. LukeWith a Short Account of His Life There is little certain known of this evangelist: from what is spoken in the Scriptures, and by the best informed of the primitive fathers, the following probable account is collected: - Luke was, according to Dr. Lardner, a Jew by birth, and an early convert to Christianity; but Michaelis thinks he was a Gentile, and brings Col 4:10, Col 4:11, Col 4:14, in proof, where St. Paul distinguished Aristarchus, Marcus, and Jesus, who was called Justus, from Epaphras, Lucas, and Demas, who were of the circumcision, i.e. Jews. Some think he was one of our Lord's seventy disciples. It is worthy of remark that he is the only evangelist who mentions the commission given by Christ to the seventy, Luke 10:1-20. It is likely he is the Lucius mentioned Rom 16:21, and if so he was related to the Apostle Paul, and that it is the same Lucius of Cyrene who is mentioned Act 13:1, and in general with others, Act 11:20. Some of the ancients, and some of the most learned and judicious among the moderns, think he was one of the two whom our Lord met on the way to Emmaus on the day of his resurrection, as related Luke 24:13-35; one of these was called Cleopas, Luk 24:18, the other is not mentioned, the evangelist, himself, being the person and the relator. St. Paul styles him his fellow-laborer, Plm 1:24. It is barely probable that he is the person mentioned, Col 4:14, Luke, the beloved physician. All the ancients of repute, such as Eusebius, Gregory Nyssen, Jerome, Paulinus, Euthalius, Euthymius, and others, agree that he was a physician, but where he was born, and where he exercised the duties of his profession, are not known. Many moderns have attributed to him the most profound skill in the science of painting, and that he made some pictures of the Virgin Mary. This is justly esteemed fabulous; nor is this science attributed to him by any writer previously to Nicephorus Callisti, in the fourteenth century, an author who scarcely deserves any credit, especially in relations not confirmed by others. He accompanied St. Paul when he first went into Macedonia, Acts 16:8-40; Act 20:1; Act 27:1; Act 28:1. Whether he went with him constantly afterwards is not certain; but it is evident he accompanied him from Greece through Macedonia and Asia to Jerusalem, where he is supposed to have collected many particulars of the evangelic history: from Jerusalem he went with Paul to Rome, where he stayed with him the two years of his imprisonment in that city. This alone makes out the space of five years, and upwards. It is probable that he left St. Paul when he was set at liberty, and that he then went into Greece, where he finished and published this Gospel, and the book of the Acts, which he dedicated to Theophilus, an honorable Christian friend of his in that country. It is supposed that he died in peace about the eightieth or eighty-fourth year of his age. Some suppose he published this Gospel fifteen, others twenty-two years after the ascension of Christ. See much on this subject in Lardner, Works, vol. vi. p. 104, etc., and in Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament. Some learned men think that Luke has borrowed considerably from St. Matthew: collate Luk 3:7-9, Luk 3:16, Luk 3:17, with Mat 3:7-12; also Luke 5:20-38, with Matthew 9:2-17; also Luk 6:1-5, with Mat 12:1-5; Luk 7:22-28, with Mat 11:4-11; also Luk 12:22-31, with Mat 6:25-33. It is allowed that there is considerable diversity in the order of time between St Matthew and St. Luke, which is accounted for thus: Matthew deduces the facts related in his history in chronological order. Luke, on the contrary, appears to have paid little attention to this order, because he proposed to make a classification of events, referring each to its proper class, without paying any attention to chronological arrangement. Some critics divide this history into five distinct classes or sections, in the following manner: - CLASS I. Comprehends all the details relative to the birth of Christ; with the preceding, concomitant, and immediately succeeding circumstances. Luk 1:1, and 2:1-40. CLASS II. Contains a description of our Lord's infancy and bringing up; his visit to the temple when twelve years of age; and his going down to Nazareth and continuing under the government of his parents; Luk 2:41-52. CLASS III. Contains the account of the preaching of John Baptist, and his success; the baptism of Christ, and his genealogy. Luk 3:1. CLASS IV. Comprehends the account of all our Lord's transactions in Galilee, for the whole three years of his ministry, from Luk 4:1 to Luke 9:1-50. This seems evident: for as soon as Luke had given the account of our Lord's temptation in the deserts Luk 4:1-13, he represents him as immediately returning in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, Luk 4:14; mentions Nazareth, Luk 4:16; Capernaum, Luk 4:31; and the lake of Galilee, Luk 5:1; and thus, to Luk 9:50, goes on to describe the preaching, miracles, etc.; of our Lord in Galilee. CLASS V. and last, commences at Luk 9:51, where the evangelist gives an account of our Lord's last journey to Jerusalem: therefore this class contains, not only all the transactions of our Lord from that time to his crucifixion, but also, the account of his resurrection, his commission to his apostles, and his ascension to heaven. Luk 9:51, to Luk 24:53, inclusive. A plan similar to this has been followed by Suetonius, in his life of Augustus: he does not produce his facts in chronological order, but classifies them, as he himself professes, cap. 12, giving an account of all his wars, honors, legislative acts, discipline, domestic life, etc., etc. Matthew therefore, is to be consulted for the correct arrangement of facts in chronological order: Luke, for a classification of facts and events, without any attention to the order of time in which they occurred. Many eminent historians have conducted their narratives in the same way. See Rosenmuller. It must not, however, be forgotten, that this evangelist gives us some very valuable chronological data in several parts of the three first chapters. These shall be noticed in their proper places.","order":42,"numberOfChapters":24,"sha256":"8543b5dd3b3ec4ba37648653ebc64931aeb5fef61909bd64dfc82a44a0a36bdb","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/LUK/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"adam-clarke","book":"LUK","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":24,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/LUK/24.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"adam-clarke","book":"LUK","chapter":24},"totalNumberOfVerses":747},"chapter":{"number":13,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":1,"content":["At that season - At what time this happened is not easy to determine; but it appears that it was now a piece of news which was told to Christ and his disciples for the first time.\nWhose blood Pilate had mingled - This piece of history is not recorded (as far as I can find) by Josephus: however, he states that the Galileans were the most seditious people in the land: they belonged properly to Herod's jurisdiction; but, as they kept the great feasts at Jerusalem, they probably, by their tumultuous behavior at some one of them, gave Pilate, who was a mortal enemy to Herod, a pretext to fall upon and slay many of them; and thus, perhaps, sacrifice the people to the resentment he had against the prince. Archelaus is represented by Josephus as sending his soldiers into the temple, and slaying 3000 men while they were employed in offering sacrifices. Josephus, War, b. ii. c. 1, s. 3, and ii. c. 5. Some suppose that this refers to the followers of Judas Gaulonites, (see Act 5:37), who would not acknowledge the Roman government, a number of whom Pilate surrounded and slew, while they were sacrificing in the temple. See Josephus, Antiq. lib. 18: but this is not very certain. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["The tower in Siloam - This tower was probably built over one of the porticoes near the pool, which is mentioned Joh 9:7. See also Neh 3:15.\nDebtors, οφειλεται, a Jewish phrase for sinners. Persons professing to be under the law are bound by the law to be obedient to all its precepts; those who obey not are reckoned debtors to the law, or rather to that Divine justice from which the law came. A different word is used when speaking of the Galileans: they are termed ἁμαρτωλοι, as this word is often used to signify heathens; see the notes on Luk 7:37; it is probably used here in nearly a similar sense. \"Do ye who live in Jerusalem, and who consider your selves peculiarly attached to the law, and under the strongest obligations to obey it - do ye think that those Galileans were more heathenish than the rest of the Galileans, because they suffered such things? No. It was not on this account that they perished: both these cases exhibit a specimen of the manner in which ye shall all perish, if ye do not speedily repent, and turn to God.\" \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["Ye shall all likewise perish - Ὡσαυτως, ὁμοιως, In a like way, in the same manner. This prediction of our Lord was literally fulfilled. When the city was taken by the Romans, multitudes of the priests, etc., who were going on with their sacrifices, were slain, and their blood mingled with the blood of their victims; and multitudes were buried under the ruins of the walls, houses, and temple. See Josephus, War, b. vi. ch. iv., v., vi.; and see the notes on Matthew 24 (note).\nIt is very wrong to suppose that those who suffer by the sword, or by natural accidents, are the most culpable before God. An adequate punishment for sin cannot be inflicted in this world: what God does here, in this way, is in general:\n1st, through mercy, to alarm others;\n2, to show his hatred to sin;\n3, to preserve in men's minds a proper sense of his providence and justice; and\n4, to give sinners, in one or two particular instances, a general specimen of the punishment that awaits all the perseveringly impenitent. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["A certain man - Many meanings are given to this parable, and divines may abound in them; the sense which our Lord designed to convey by it appears to be the following: - \n1. A person, τις, God Almighty.\n2. Had a fig tree, the Jewish Church.\n3. Planted in his vineyard - established in the land of Judea.\n4. He came seeking fruit - he required that the Jewish people should walk in righteousness, in proportion to the spiritual culture he bestowed on them.\n5. The vine-dresser - the Lord Jesus, for God hath committed all judgment to the Son, Joh 5:22.\n6. Cut it down - let the Roman sword be unsheathed against it.\n7. Let it alone - Christ is represented as intercessor for sinners, for whose sake the day of their probation is often lengthened; during which time he is constantly employed in doing every thing that has a tendency to promote their salvation.\n8. Thou shalt cut it down - a time will come, that those who have not turned at God's invitations and reproofs shall be cut off, and numbered with the transgressors. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Behold these three years - From this circumstance in the parable, it may be reasonably concluded that Jesus had been, at the time of saying this, exercising his ministry for three years past; and, from what is said in Luk 13:8, of letting it alone this year also, it may be concluded likewise that this parable was spoken about a year before Christ's crucifixion; and, if both these conclusions are reasonable, we may thence infer that this parable was not spoken at the time which appears to be assigned to it, and that the whole time of Christ's public ministry was about four years. See Bishop Pearce. But it has already been remarked that St. Luke never studies chronological arrangement. See the Preface to this Gospel.\nWhy cumbereth it the ground? - Or, in other words, Why should the ground be also useless? The tree itself brings forth no fruit; let it be cut down that a more profitable one may be planted in its place. Cut it down. The Codex Bezae has added here, φερε την αξινην, Bring the axe and cut it down. If this reading be genuine, it is doubtless an allusion to Mat 3:10 (note): Now the axe lieth at the root of the trees. If the writer has added it on his own authority, he probably referred to the place above mentioned. See the note on the above text.\nThere is something very like this in the Γεωπονικα, or De Re Rustica of the ancient Greek writers on agriculture. I refer to cap. 83 of lib. x., p. 773; edit. Niclas, entitled, Δενδρον ακαρπον καρποφορειν, How to make a barren tree fruitful. Having girded yourself, and tied up your garments, take a bipen or axe, and with an angry mind approach the tree as if about to cut it down. Then let some person come forward and deprecate the cutting down of the tree, making himself responsible for its future fertility. Then, seem to be appeased, and so spare the tree, and afterwards it will yield fruit in abundance. \"Bean straw (manure of that material), scattered about the roots of the tree, will make it fruitful.\" That a similar superstition prevailed among the Asiatics, Michaelis proves from the Cosmographer Ibn Alvardi, who prescribes the following as the mode to render a sterile palm tree fruitful: \"The owner, armed with an axe, having an attendant with him, approaches the tree, and says, I must cut this tree down, because it is unfruitful. Let it alone, I beseech thee, says the other, and this year it will bring forth fruit. The owner immediately strikes it thrice with the back of his axe; but the other preventing him says, I beseech thee to spare it, and I will be answerable for its fertility. Then the tree becomes abundantly fruitful.\" Does not our Lord refer to such a custom? \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["A woman which had a spirit of infirmity - Relative to this subject three things may be considered: - \nI. The woman's infirmity.\nII. Her cure. And\nIII. The conduct of the ruler of the synagogue on the occasion.\nI. The woman's infirmity.\n1. What was its origin? Sin. Had this never entered into the world, there had not been either pain, distortion, or death.\n2. Who was the agent in it? Satan; Luk 13:16. God has often permitted demons to act on and in the bodies of men and women; and it is not improbable that the principal part of unaccountable and inexplicable disorders still come from the same source.\n3. What was the nature of this infirmity? She was bowed together, bent down to the earth, a situation equally painful and humiliating; the violence of which she could not support, and the shame of which she could not conceal.\n4. What was the duration of this infirmity? Eighteen years. A long time to be under the constant and peculiar influence of the devil.\nWhat was the effect of this infirmity? The woman was so bowed together that she could in no case stand straight, or look toward heaven.\nII. The woman's cure.\n1. Jesus saw her, Luk 13:12. Notwithstanding her infirmity was great, painful, and shameful, she took care to attend the synagogue. While she hoped for help from God, she saw it was her duty to wait in the appointed way, in order to receive it. Jesus saw her distress, and the desire she had both to worship her Maker and to get her health restored, and his eye affected his heart.\n2. He called her to him. Her heart and her distress spoke loudly, though her lips were silent; and, as she was thus calling for help, Jesus calls her to himself that she may receive help.\n3. Jesus laid his hands on her. The hand of his holiness terrifies, and the hand of his power expels, the demon. Ordinances, however excellent, will be of no avail to a sinner, unless he apprehend Christ in them.\n4. Immediately she was made straight, Luk 13:13. This cure was - \n1. A speedy one - it was done in an instant.\n2. It was a perfect one - she was made completely whole.\n3. It was a public one - there were many to attest and render it credible.\n4. It was a stable and permanent one - she was loosed, for ever loosed from her infirmity.\n5. Her soul partook of the good done to her body - she glorified God. As she knew before that it was Satan who had bound her, she knew also that it was God only that could loose her; and now, feeling that she is loosed, she gives God that honor which is due to his name.\nIII. The conduct of the ruler of the synagogue on the occasion.\n1. He answered with indignation, Luk 13:14. It would seem as if the demon who had left the woman's body had got into his heart. It is not an infrequent case to find a person filled with rage and madness, while beholding the effects of Christ's power upon others. Perhaps, like this ruler, he pretends zeal and concern for the honor of religion: \"These preachings, prayer meetings, convictions, conversions, etc., are not carried on in his way, and therefore they cannot be of God.\" Let such take care, lest, while denying the operation of God's hand, they be given up to demonic influence.\n2. He endeavors to prevent others from receiving the kind help of the blessed Jesus - He said unto the people, etc., Luk 13:14. Men of this character who have extensive influence over the poor, etc., do immense harm: they often hinder them from hearing that word which is able to save their souls. But for this also they must stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Reader, hast thou ever acted in this way?\n3. Jesus retorts his condemnation with peculiar force; Luk 13:15, Luk 13:16. Thou hypocrite to pretend zeal for God's glory, when it is only the workings of thy malicious, unfeeling, and uncharitable heart. Wouldst thou not even take thy ass to water upon the Sabbath day? And wouldst thou deprive a daughter of Abraham (one of thy own nation and religion) of the mercy and goodness of God upon the Sabbath? Was not the Sabbath instituted for the benefit of man?\n4. His adversaries were ashamed, Luk 13:17. The mask of their hypocrisy, the only covering they had, is taken away; and now they are exposed to the just censure of that multitude whom they deceived, and from whom they expected continual applause.\n5. His indignation and uncharitable censure, not only turn to his own confusion, but are made the instruments of the edification of the multitude - they rejoiced at all the glorious things which he did. Thus, O Lord! the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder thereof thou shalt restrain.\nA preacher will know how to apply this subject to general edification. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["The kingdom - is like a grain of mustard seed - See on Mat 13:31 (note). \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["Like leaven - See this explained, Mat 13:33 (note). \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["Journeying toward Jerusalem - Luke represents all that is said, from Luk 9:51, as having been done and spoken while Christ was on his last journey to Jerusalem. See the notes on Luk 9:51, and Luk 12:58 (note), and see the Preface. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["Are there few that be saved? - A question either of impertinence or curiosity, the answer to which can profit no man. The grand question is, Can I be saved? Yes. How? Strive earnestly to enter in through the strait gate - αγωνιζεσθε, agonize - exert every power of body and soul - let your salvation be the grand business of your whole life. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["Many - will seek - They seek - wish and desire; but they do not strive; therefore, because they will not agonize - will not be in earnest, they shall not get in. See this subject more particularly explained on Mat 7:13, Mat 7:14 (note). \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["And hath shut to the door - See the notes on Mat 7:22-23 (note), and 25:10-41. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["Abraham, and Isaac, etc. - See on Mat 8:12 (note), where the figures and allusions made use of here are particularly explained. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["They shall come - That is, the Gentiles, in every part of the world, shall receive the Gospel of the grace of God, when the Jews shall have rejected it. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["There are last which shall be first - See on Mat 19:30 (note). \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["Depart hence, etc. - It is probable that the place from which Christ was desired to depart was Galilee or Perea; for beyond this Herod had no jurisdiction. It can scarcely mean Jerusalem, though it appears from Luk 23:7, that Herod Antipas was there at the time of our Lord's crucifixion.\nHerod will kill thee - Lactantius says that this Herod was the person who chiefly instigated the Jewish rulers to put our Lord to death: Tum Pontius, et illorum clamoribus, et Herodis tetrarchae instigatione, metuentis ne regno pelleretur, victus est: - fearing lest himself should be expelled from the kingdom, if Christ should be permitted to set up his. See Lact. Inst. Div. lib. iv. c. xviii., and Bishop Pearce on Luk 23:7. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":32,"content":["Tell that fox - Herod was a very vicious prince, and lived in public incest with his sister-in-law, Mar 6:17 : if our Lord meant him here, it is hard to say why the character of fox, which implies cunning, design, and artifice, to hide evil intentions, should be attributed to him, who never seemed studious to conceal his vices. But we may suppose that Christ, who knew his heart, saw that he covered his desire for the destruction of our Lord, under the pretense of zeal for the law and welfare of the Jewish people. A fox among the Jews appears to have been the emblem of a wicked ruler, who united cunning with cruelty, and was always plotting how he might aggrandize himself by spoiling the people. See a quotation in Schoettgen.\nThe following observation from the judicious Bishop Pearce deserves attention. \"It is not certain,\" says he, \"that Jesus meant Herod here; he might only have intended to call that man so, from whom the advice of departing came, (whether from the speaker himself, or the person who sent him), for it is probable, that the advice was given craftily, and with design to frighten Jesus, and, make him go from that place.\"\nTo-day and to-morrow - I am to work miracles for two days more, and on the third day I shall be put to death. But it is probable that this phrase only means, that he had but a short time to live, without specifying its duration.\nPerfected - Or finished, τελειουμαι. I shall then have accomplished the purpose for which I came into the world, leaving nothing undone which the counsel of God designed me to complete. Hence, in reference to our Lord, the word implies his dying; as the plan of human redemption was not finished, till he bowed his head and gave up the ghost on the cross: see Joh 19:30, where the same word is used. It is used also in reference to Christ's death, Heb 2:10; Heb 5:9; see also Act 20:24, and Heb 12:23. The word finish, etc., is used in the same sense both by the Greeks and Latins. See Kypke. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":33,"content":["I must walk, etc. - I must continue to work miracles and teach for a short time yet, and then I shall die in Jerusalem: therefore I cannot depart, according to the advice given me, (Luk 13:31), nor can a hair of my head fall to the ground till my work be all done.\nTo-day and to-morrow, etc. - Kypke contends that the proper translation of the original is, I must walk to-day and to-morrow In The Neighboring Coasts: and that εχομενη is often understood in this way: see Mar 1:38, and his notes there. That Christ was now in the jurisdiction of Herod, as he supposes, is evident from Luk 13:31; that he was on his last journey to Jerusalem, Luk 9:51; that he had just passed through Samaria, Luk 9:52, Luk 9:56; that as Samaria and Judea were under the Roman procurator, and Perea was subject to Herod Antipas, therefore he concludes that Christ was at this time in Perea; which agrees with Mat 19:1, and Mar 10:1, and Luk 17:11. He thinks, if the words be not understood in this way, they are contrary to Luk 13:32, which says that on it Christ is to die, while this says he is to live and act.\nPerish out of Jerusalem - A man who professes to be a prophet can be tried on that ground only by the grand Sanhedrin, which always resides at Jerusalem; and as the Jews are about to put me to death, under the pretense of my being a false prophet, therefore my sentence must come from this city, and my death take place in it. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":34,"content":["O Jerusalem, Jerusalem - See the note on Mat 23:37-39 (note), where the metaphor of the hen is illustrated from the Greek Anthology. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":35,"content":["Your house - Ὁ οικος, the temple - called here your house, not my house - I acknowledge it no longer; I have abandoned it, and will dwell in it no more for ever. So he said, Ch2 36:17, when he delivered the temple into the hands of the Chaldeans - the house of Your sanctuary. A similar form of speech is found, Exo 32:7, where the Lord said to Moses, Thy people, etc., to intimate that he acknowledged them no longer for his followers. See the notes on Mat 23:21, Mat 23:38. But some think that our Lord means, not the temple, but the whole commonwealth of the Jews.\nThe principal subjects it this chapter may be found considered at large, on the parallel places in Matthew and Mark, to which the reader is referred. As to the account of the woman with the spirit of infirmity, which is not mentioned by any other of the evangelists, see it largely illustrated in the notes on Luk 13:11 (note), etc.\n\n"]}],"introduction":"Christ preaches the necessity of repentance, from the punishment of the Galileans massacred by Pilate, Luk 13:1-3. And by the death of those on whom the tower in Siloam fell, Luk 13:4, Luk 13:5. The parable of the barren fig tree, vv. 6-29. Christ cures a woman who had been afflicted eighteen years, Luk 13:10-13. The ruler of the synagogue is incensed and is reproved by our Lord, Luk 13:14-17. The parable of the mustard seed, Luk 13:18, Luk 13:19; of the leaven, Luk 13:20-21. He journeys towards Jerusalem, and preaches, Luk 13:22. The question, Are there few saved? and our Lords answer, with the discourse thereon, Luk 13:23-30. He is informed that Herod purposes to kill him, Luk 13:31, Luk 13:32. Predicts his own death at Jerusalem, and denounces judgments on that impenitent city, Luk 13:33-35. \n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/LUK/13.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"adam-clarke","book":"LUK","chapter":13},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/LUK/14.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"adam-clarke","book":"LUK","chapter":14},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/LUK/12.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"adam-clarke","book":"LUK","chapter":12},"numberOfVerses":20}