{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"LUK","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Luke","commonName":"Luke","introduction":"THE writer of this Gospel is universally allowed to have been Lucas (an abbreviated form of Lucanus, as Silas of Silvanus), though he is not expressly named either in the Gospel or in the Acts. From Col 4:14 we learn that he was a \"physician\"; and by comparing that verse with Col 4:10-11 --in which the apostle enumerates all those of the circumcision who were then with him, but does not mention Luke, though he immediately afterwards sends a salutation from him--we gather that Luke was not a born Jew. Some have thought he was a freed-man (libertinus), as the Romans devolved the healing art on persons of this class and on their slaves, as an occupation beneath themselves. His intimate acquaintance with Jewish customs, and his facility in Hebraic Greek, seem to show that he was an early convert to the Jewish faith; and this is curiously confirmed by Act 21:27-29, where we find the Jews enraged at Paul's supposed introduction of Greeks into the temple, because they had seen \"Trophimus the Ephesian\" with him; and as we know that Luke was with Paul on that occasion, it would seem that they had taken him for a Jew, as they made no mention of him. On the other hand, his fluency in classical Greek confirms his Gentile origin. The time when he joined Paul's company is clearly indicated in the Acts by his changing (at Act 16:10) from the third person singular (\"he\") to the first person plural (\"we\"). From that time he hardly ever left the apostle till near the period of his martyrdom (Ti2 4:11). EUSEBIUS makes him a native of Antioch. If so, he would have every advantage for cultivating the literature of Greece and such medical knowledge as was then possessed. That he died a natural death is generally agreed among the ancients; GREGORY NAZIANZEN alone affirming that he died a martyr.\n\nThe time and place of the publication of his Gospel are alike uncertain. But we can approximate to it. It must at any rate have been issued before the Acts, for there the 'Gospel' is expressly referred to as the same author's \"former treatise\" (Act 1:1). Now the Book of the Acts was not published for two whole years after Paul's arrival as a prisoner at Rome, for it concludes with a reference to this period; but probably it was published soon after that, which would appear to have been early in the year 63. Before that time, then, we have reason to believe that the Gospel of Luke was in circulation, though the majority of critics make it later. If we date it somewhere between A.D. 50 and 60, we shall probably be near the truth; but nearer it we cannot with any certainty come. Conjectures as to the place of publication are too uncertain to be mentioned here.\n\nThat it was addressed, in the first instance, to Gentile readers, is beyond doubt. This is no more, as DAVIDSON remarks [Introduction to the New Testament, p. 186], than was to have been expected from the companion of an \"apostle of the Gentiles,\" who had witnessed marvellous changes in the condition of many heathens by the reception of the Gospel. But the explanations in his Gospel of things known to every Jew, and which could only be intended for Gentile readers, make this quite plain--see Luk 1:26; Luk 4:31; Luk 8:26; Luk 21:37; Luk 22:1; Luk 24:13. A number of other minute particulars, both of things inserted and of things omitted, confirm the conclusion that it was Gentiles whom this Evangelist had in the first instance in view.\n\nWe have already adverted to the classical style of Greek which this Evangelist writes--just what might have been expected from an educated Greek and travelled physician. But we have also observed that along with this he shows a wonderful flexibility of style, so much so, that when he comes to relate transactions wholly Jewish, where the speakers and actors and incidents are all Jewish, he writes in such Jewish Greek as one would do who had never been out of Palestine or mixed with any but Jews. In DA COSTA'S'S Four Witnesses will be found some traces of \"the beloved physician\" in this Gospel. But far more striking and important are the traces in it of his intimate connection with the apostle of the Gentiles. That one who was so long and so constantly in the society of that master mind has in such a work as this shown no traces of that connection, no stamp of that mind, is hardly to be believed. Writers of Introductions seem not to see it, and take no notice of it. But those who look into the interior of it will soon discover evidences enough in it of a Pauline cast of mind. Referring for a number of details to DA COSTA, we notice here only two examples: In Co1 11:23, Paul ascribes to an express revelation from Christ Himself the account of the Institution of the Lord's Supper which he there gives. Now, if we find this account differing in small yet striking particulars from the accounts given by Matthew and Mark, but agreeing to the letter with Luke's account, it can hardly admit of a doubt that the one had it from the other; and in that case, of course, it was Luke that had it from Paul. Now Matthew and Mark both say of the Cup, \"This is my blood of the New Testament\"; while Paul and Luke say, in identical terms, \"This cup is the New Testament in My blood\" (Co1 11:25; Luk 22:20). Further, Luke says, \"Likewise also the cup after supper, saying,\" &c.; while Paul says, \"After the same manner He took the cup when He had supped, saying,\" &c.; whereas neither Matthew nor Mark mention that this was after supper. But still more striking is another point of coincidence in this case. Matthew and Mark both say of the Bread merely this: \"Take, eat; this is My body\" (Mat 26:26; Mar 14:22); whereas Paul says, \"Take, eat, this is My body, which is broken for you\" (Co1 11:24), and Luke, \"This is My body, which is given for you\" (Luk 22:19). And while Paul adds the precious clause, \"This do in remembrance of Me,\" Luke does the same, in identical terms. How can one who reflects on this resist the conviction of a Pauline stamp in this Gospel? The other proof of this to which we ask the reader's attention is in the fact that Paul, in enumerating the parties by whom Christ was seen after His resurrection, begins, singularly enough, with Peter--\"And that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures and that He was seen of Cephas, then of the Twelve\" (Co1 15:4-5) --coupled with the remarkable fact, that Luke is the only one of the Evangelists who mentions that Christ appeared to Peter at all. When the disciples had returned from Emmaus to tell their brethren how the Lord had appeared to them in the way, and how He had made Himself known to them in the breaking of bread, they were met, as Luke relates, ere they had time to utter a word, with this wonderful piece of news, \"The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon\" (Luk 24:34).\n\nOther points connected with this Gospel will be adverted to in the Commentary. \n\n\n\nNext: Luke Chapter 1\n\n","order":42,"numberOfChapters":24,"sha256":"204b6ad5a3007ae03d59f0a3f250dc1a4fed154e78ef885292075f6de0b65757","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LUK/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LUK","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":24,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LUK/24.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LUK","chapter":24},"totalNumberOfVerses":596},"chapter":{"number":13,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["tower in Siloam--probably one of the towers of the city wall, near the pool of Siloam. Of its fall nothing is known.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["fig tree--Israel, as the visible witness of God in the world, but generally all within the pale of the visible Church of God; a familiar figure (compare Isa 5:1-7; Joh 15:1-8, &c.). \n\nvineyard--a spot selected for its fertility, separated from the surrounding fields, and cultivated with special care, with a view solely to fruit. \n\ncame and sought fruit--a heart turned to God; the fruits of righteousness; compare Mat 21:33-34, and Isa 5:2, \"He looked that it should bring forth fruit\"; He has a right to it, and will require it.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["three years--a long enough trial for a fig tree, and so denoting probably just a sufficient period of culture for spiritual fruit. The supposed allusion to the duration of our Lord's ministry is precarious. \n\ncut it down--indignant language. \n\ncumbereth--not only doing no good, but wasting ground.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["he answering, &c.--Christ, as Intercessor, loath to see it cut down so long as there was any hope (see Luk 13:34). \n\ndig, &c.--loosen the earth about it and enrich it with manure; pointing to changes of method in the divine treatment of the impenitent, in order to freshen spiritual culture.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["if . . . fruit, well--Genuine repentance, however late, avails to save (Luk 23:42-43). \n\nafter that, &c.--The final perdition of such as, after the utmost limits of reasonable forbearance, are found fruitless, will be pre-eminently and confessedly just (Pro 1:24-31; Eze 24:13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["WOMAN OF EIGHTEEN YEAR'S INFIRMITY HEALED ON THE SABBATH. (Luk 13:10-17)\n\nspirit of infirmity--Compare Luk 13:17, \"whom Satan hath bound.\" From this it is probable, though not certain, that her protracted infirmity was the effect of some milder form of possession; yet she was \"a daughter of Abraham,\" in the same gracious sense, no doubt, as Zaccheus, after his conversion, was \"a son of Abraham\" (Luk 19:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["said . . . Woman . . . and laid--both at once.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["with indignation--not so much at the sabbath violation as at the glorification of Christ. (Compare Mat 21:15) [TRENCH]. \n\nsaid to the people--\"Not daring directly to find fault with the Lord, he seeks circuitously to reach Him through the people, who were more under his influence, and whom he feared less\" [TRENCH].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["the Lord--(See on Luk 10:1). \n\nhypocrite!--How \"the faithful and true Witness\" tears off the masks which men wear! \n\nhis ox, &c.--(See on Mat 12:9-13; and Luk 6:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["ought not, &c.--How gloriously the Lord vindicates the superior claims of this woman, in consideration of the sadness and long duration of her suffering, and of her dignity notwithstanding, as an heir of the promise!\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["MISCELLANEOUS TEACHINGS. (Luk 13:18-30)\n\nmustard seed . . . leaven--(See on Mar 4:30-32). The parable of \"the Leaven\" sets forth, perhaps, rather the inward growth of the kingdom, while \"the Mustard Seed\" seems to point chiefly to the outward. It being a woman's work to knead, it seems a refinement to say that \"the woman\" here represents the Church, as the instrument of depositing the leaven. Nor does it yield much satisfaction to understand the \"three measures of meal\" of that threefold division of our nature into \"spirit, soul, and body,\" (alluded to in Th1 5:23) or of the threefold partition of the world among the three sons of Noah (Gen 10:32), as some do. It yields more real satisfaction to see in this brief parable just the all-penetrating and assimilating quality of the Gospel, by virtue of which it will yet mould all institutions and tribes of men, and exhibit over the whole earth one \"Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.\" (See on Rev 11:15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["Lord, &c.--one of those curious questions by talking of which some flatter themselves they are religious. \n\nsaid unto them--the multitude; taking no notice of the man or his question, save as furnishing the occasion of a solemn warning not to trifle with so momentous a matter as \"salvation.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["Strive--The word signifies to \"contend\" as for the mastery, to \"struggle,\" expressive of the difficulty of being saved, as if one would have to force his way in. \n\nstrait gate--another figure of the same. (See on Mat 7:13-14). \n\nfor many . . . will seek--\"desire,\" that is, with a mere wish or slothful endeavor. \n\nand shall not be able--because it must be made a life-and-death struggle.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the door--awfully sublime and vivid picture! At present he is represented as in a sitting posture, as if calmly looking on to see who will \"strive,\" while entrance is practicable, and who will merely \"seek\" to enter in. But this is to have an end, by the great Master of the house Himself rising and shutting the door, after which there will be no admittance. \n\nLord, Lord--emphatic reduplication, expressive of the earnestness now felt, but too late. (See on Mat 7:21-22).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["See on the similar passage (Mat 7:22-23). \n\neaten and drunk, &c.--We have sat with Thee at the same table. (See on Mat 7:22). \n\ntaught in our streets--Do we not remember listening in our own streets to Thy teaching? Surely we are not to be denied admittance?\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["But he shall say, &c.--(See on Mat 7:23). No nearness of external communion with Christ will avail at the great day, in place of that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Observe the style which Christ intimates that He will then assume, that of absolute Disposer of men's eternal destinies, and contrast it with His \"despised and rejected\" condition at that time.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["(See Mat 8:11-12). Also see on Mat 13:42.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["MESSAGE TO HEROD. (Luk 13:31-35)\n\nand depart hence--and \"go forward,\" push on. He was on His way out of Perea, east of Jordan, and in Herod's dominions, \"journeying towards Jerusalem\" (Luk 13:22). Haunted by guilty fears, probably, Herod wanted to get rid of Him (see on Mar 6:14), and seems, from our Lord's answer, to have sent these Pharisees, under pretense of a friendly hint, to persuade Him that the sooner He got beyond Herod's jurisdiction the better it would be for His own safety. Our Lord saw through both of them, and sends the cunning ruler a message couched in dignified and befitting irony.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":32,"content":["that fox--that crafty, cruel enemy of God's innocent servants. \n\nBehold, I cast out devils and I do cures--that is, \"Plot on and ply thy wiles; I also have My plans; My works of mercy are nearing completion, but some yet remain; I have work for to-day and to-morrow too, and the third day; by that time I shall be where his jurisdiction reaches not; the guilt of My blood shall not lie at his door; that dark deed is reserved for others.\" He does not say, I preach the Gospel--that would have made little impression upon Herod--in the light of the merciful character of Christ's actions the malice of Herod's snares is laid bare [BENGEL]. \n\nto-day, to-morrow, the third day--remarkable language expressive of successive steps of His work yet remaining, the calm deliberateness with which He meant to go through with them, one after another, to the last, unmoved by Herod's threat, yet the rapid march with which they were now hastening to completion. (Compare Luk 22:37). \n\nI shall be perfected--I finish my course, I attain completion.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":33,"content":["it cannot be that a prophet, &c.--\"It would never do that,\" &c.--awful severity of satire this upon \"the bloody city!\" \"He seeks to kill me, does he? Ah! I must be out of Herod's jurisdiction for that. Go tell him I neither fly from him nor fear him, but Jerusalem is the prophets' slaughter-house.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":34,"content":["O Jerusalem, &c.--(See on Mat 23:37; Mat 23:39).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Luke Chapter 14\n\n"]}],"introduction":"THE LESSON, \"REPENT OR PERISH,\" SUGGESTED BY TWO RECENT INCIDENTS, AND ILLUSTRATED BY THE PARABLE OF THE BARREN FIG TREE. (Luk 13:1-9)\n\nGalileans--possibly the followers of Judas of Galilee, who, some twenty years before this, taught that Jews should not pay tribute to the Romans, and of whom we learn, from Act 5:37, that he drew after him a multitude of followers, who on his being slain were all dispersed. About this time that party would be at its height, and if Pilate caused this detachment of them to be waylaid and put to death as they were offering their sacrifices at one of the festivals, that would be \"mingling their blood with their sacrifices\" [GROTIUS, WEBSTER and WILKINSON, but doubted by DE WETTE, MEYER, ALFORD, &c.]. News of this being brought to our Lord, to draw out His views of such, and whether it was not a judgment of Heaven, He simply points them to the practical view of the matter: \"These men are not signal examples of divine vengeance, as ye suppose; but every impenitent sinner--ye yourselves, except ye repent--shall be like monuments of the judgment of Heaven, and in a more awful sense.\" The reference here to the impending destruction of Jerusalem is far from exhausting our Lord's weighty words; they manifestly point to a \"perdition\" of a more awful kind--future, personal, remediless.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LUK/13.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LUK","chapter":13},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LUK/14.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LUK","chapter":14},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LUK/12.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LUK","chapter":12},"numberOfVerses":21}