{"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":18,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["feared not . . . neither regarded--defying the vengeance of God and despising the opinion of men. \n\nwidow--weak, desolate, defenseless (Ti1 5:5, which is taken from this).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["came--kept coming. See Luk 18:5, \"her continual coming.\" \n\nAvenge me--that is, rid me of the oppression of.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["continual coming--coming for ever.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["the Lord--a name expressive of the authoritative style in which He interprets His own parable.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["shall not God--not unjust, but the infinitely righteous Judge. \n\navenge--redeem from oppression. \n\nhis own elect--not like this widow, the object of indifference and contempt, but dear to Him as the apple of the eye (Zac 2:8). \n\ncry day and night--whose every cry enters into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth (Jam 5:4), and how much more their incessant and persevering cries! \n\nbear long with them--rather, \"in their case,\" or \"on their account\" (as) Jam 5:7, \"for it\"), [GROTIUS, DE WETTE, &c.].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["speedily--as if pained at the long delay, impatient for the destined moment to interpose. (Compare Pro 29:1.) \n\nNevertheless, &c.--that is, Yet ere the Son of man comes to redress the wrongs of His Church, so low will the hope of relief sink, through the length of the delay, that one will be fain to ask, Will He find any faith of a coming avenger left on the earth? From this we learn: (1) That the primary and historical reference of this parable is to the Church in its widowed, desolate, oppressed, defenseless condition during the present absence of her Lord in the heavens; (2) That in these circumstances importunate, persevering prayer for deliverance is the Church's fitting exercise; (3) That notwithstanding every encouragement to this, so long will the answer be delayed, while the need of relief continues the same, and all hope of deliverance will have nearly died out, and \"faith\" of Christ's coming scarcely to be found. But the application of the parable to prayer in general is so obvious as to have nearly hidden its more direct reference, and so precious that one cannot allow it to disappear in any public and historical interpretation.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["PARABLE OF THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. (Luk 18:9-14)\n\nstood--as the Jews in prayer (Mar 11:25). \n\nGod, &c.--To have been kept from gross iniquities was undoubtedly a just cause of thankfulness to God; but instead of the devoutly humble, admiring frame which this should inspire, the Pharisee arrogantly severs himself from the rest of mankind, as quite above them, and, with a contemptuous look at the poor publican, thanks God that he has not to stand afar off like him, to hang down his head like a bulrush and beat his breast like him. But these are only his moral excellencies. His religious merits complete his grounds for congratulation. Not confining himself to the one divinely prescribed annual fast (Lev 16:29), he was not behind the most rigid, who fasted on the second and fifth days of every week [LIGHTFOOT], and gave the tenth not only of what the law laid under tithing, but of \"all his gains.\" Thus, besides doing all his duty, he did works of supererogation; while sins to confess and spiritual wants to be supplied he seems to have felt none. What a picture of the Pharisaic character and religion!\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["standing afar off--as unworthy to draw near; but that was the way to get near (Psa 34:18; Isa 57:15). \n\nwould not lift up--blushing and ashamed to do so (Ezr 9:6). \n\nsmote, &c.--kept smiting; for anguish (Luk 23:48), and self-reproach (Jer 31:19). \n\nbe merciful--\"be propitiated,\" a very unusual word in such a sense, only once else used in the New Testament, in the sense of \"making reconciliation\" by sacrifice (Heb 2:17). There may therefore, be some allusion to this here, though not likely. \n\na sinner--literally, \"the sinner\"; that is, \"If ever there was one, I am he.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["rather than the other--The meaning is, \"and not the other\"; for the Pharisee was not seeking justification, and felt no need of it. This great law of the Kingdom of God is, in the teaching of Christ, inscribed, as in letters of gold, over its entrance gate. And in how many different forms is it repeated (Psa 138:6; Psa 147:6; Luk 1:53). To be self-emptied, or, \"poor in spirit,\" is the fundamental and indispensable preparation for the reception of the \"grace which bringeth salvation\": wherever this exists, the \"mourning\" for it which precedes \"comfort\" and the earnest \"hungerings and thirstings after righteousness\" which are rewarded by the \"fulness\" of it, will, as we see here, be surely found. Such, therefore, and such only, are the justified ones (Job 33:27-28; Psa 34:18; Isa 57:15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["LITTLE CHILDREN BROUGHT TO CHRIST. (Luk 18:15-17)\n\ninfants--showing that some, at least, of those called in Matthew (Mat 19:13) and Mark (Mar 10:13) simply \"little\" or \"young children,\" were literally \"babes.\" \n\ntouch them--or, as more fully in Matthew (Mat 19:13), \"put His hands on them and pray,\" or invoke a \"blessing\" on them (Mar 10:16), according to venerable custom (Gen 48:14-15). \n\nrebuked them--Repeatedly the disciples thus interposed to save annoyance and interruption to their Master; but, as the result showed, always against the mind of Christ (Mat 15:23; Luk 18:39-40). Here, it is plain from our Lord's reply, that they thought the intrusion a useless one, as infants were not capable of receiving anything from Him. His ministrations were for grown people.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["But Jesus--\"much displeased,\" says Mark (Mar 10:14); and invaluable addition. \n\nsaid--\"SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME\"--\"AND FORBID THEM NOT,\" is the important addition of Matthew (Mat 19:14) and Mark (Mar 10:14). What words are these from the lips of Christ! The price of them is above rubies. But the reason assigned, \"FOR OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD,\" or \"of heaven,\" as in Mat 19:14, completes the previous information here conveyed; especially as interpreted by what immediately follows: \"AND HE TOOK THEM UP IN HIS ARMS, PUT HIS HANDS UPON THEM, AND BLESSED THEM\" (Mar 10:16). It is surely not to be conceived that all our Lord meant was to inform us, that seeing grown people must become childlike in order to be capable of the Kingdom of God, therefore they should not hinder infants from coming to Him, and therefore He took up and blessed the infants themselves. Was it not just the grave mistake of the disciples that infants should not be brought to Christ, because only grown people could profit by Him, which \"much displeased\" our Lord? And though He took the irresistible opportunity of lowering their pride of reason, by informing them that, in order to enter the Kingdom, \"instead of the children first becoming like them, they must themselves become like the children\" [RICHTER in STIER], this was but by the way; and, returning to the children themselves, He took them up in His gracious arms, put His hands upon them and blessed them, for no conceivable reason but to show that they were thereby made capable, AS INFANTS, of the Kingdom of God. And if so, then \"Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?\" (Act 10:47). But such application of the baptismal water can have no warrant here, save where the infants have been previously brought to Christ Himself for His benediction, and only as the sign and seal of that benediction.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["THE RICH YOUNG RULER AND DISCOURSE THEREON. (Luk 18:18-30)\n\nWhy, &c.--Did our Lord mean then to teach that God only ought to be called \"good?\" Impossible, for that had been to contradict all Scripture teaching, and His own, too (Psa 112:5; Mat 25:21; Tit 1:8). Unless therefore we are to ascribe captiousness to our Lord, He could have had but one object--to raise the youth's ideas of Himself, as not to be classed merely with other \"good masters,\" and declining to receive this title apart from the \"One\" who is essentially and only \"good.\" This indeed is but distantly hinted; but unless this is seen in the background of our Lord's words, nothing worthy of Him can be made out of them. (Hence, Socinianism, instead of having any support here, is only baffled by it).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["Thou knowest, &c.--Matthew (Mat 19:17) is more complete here: \"but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which--as if he had said, Point me out one of them which I have not kept?--\"Jesus said, Thou shalt,\" &c. (Mat 19:17-18). Our Lord purposely confines Himself to the second table, which He would consider easy to keep, enumerating them all--for in Mark (Mar 10:19), \"Defraud not\" stands for the tenth (else the eighth is twice repeated). In Matthew (Mat 19:19) the sum of this second table of the law is added, \"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,\" as if to see if he would venture to say he had kept that.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["All these, &c.--\"what lack I yet?\" adds Matthew (Mat 19:20). Ah! this gives us a glimpse of his heart. Doubtless he was perfectly sincere; but something within whispered to him that his keeping of the commandments was too easy a way of getting to heaven. He felt something beyond this to be necessary; after keeping all the commandments he was at a loss to know what that could be; and he came to Jesus just upon that point. \"Then,\" says Mark (Mar 10:21), \"Jesus beholding him loved him,\" or \"looked lovingly upon him.\" His sincerity, frankness, and nearness to the kingdom of God, in themselves most winning qualities, won our Lord's regard even though he turned his back upon Him--a lesson to those who can see nothing lovable save in the regenerate.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["lackest . . . one thing--Ah! but that a fundamental, fatal lack. \n\nsell, &c.--As riches were his idol, our Lord, who knew if from the first, lays His great authoritative grasp at once upon it, saying, \"Now give Me up that, and all is right.\" No general direction about the disposal of riches, then, is here given, save that we are to sit loose to them and lay them at the feet of Him who gave them. He who does this with all he has, whether rich or poor, is a true heir of the kingdom of heaven.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["was very sorrowful--Matthew (Mat 19:22) more fully, \"went away sorrowful\"; Mark still more, \"was sad\" or \"sullen\" at that saying, and \"went away grieved.\" Sorry he was, very sorry, to part with Christ; but to part with his riches would have cost him a pang more. When Riches or Heaven, on Christ's terms, were the alternative, the result showed to which side the balance inclined. Thus was he shown to lack the one all-comprehensive requirement of the law--the absolute subjection of the heart to God, and this want vitiated all his other obediences.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["when Jesus saw--Mark says (Mar 3:34), He \"looked round about\"--as if first following the departing youth with His eye--\"and saith unto His disciples.\" \n\nHow hardly, &c.--with what difficulty. In Mark (Mar 10:24) an explanation is added, \"How hard is it for them that trust in riches,\" &c.--that is, with what difficulty is this idolatrous trust conquered, without which they cannot enter; and this is introduced by the word \"children\"--sweet diminutive of affection and pity (Joh 21:5).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["easier for a camel, &c.--a proverbial expression denoting literally a thing impossible, but figuratively, very difficult.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["For, &c.--\"At that rate none can be saved\": \"Well, it does pass human power, but not divine.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["Lo, &c.--in the simplicity of his heart (as is evident from the reply), conscious that the required surrender had been made, and generously taking in his brethren with him--\"we\"; not in the spirit of the young ruler. \"All these have I kept,\" \n\nleft all--\"The workmen's little is as much his \"all\" as the prince's much\" [BENGEL]. In Matthew (Mat 19:27) he adds, \"What shall we have therefore?\" How shall it fare with us?\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["There is no man, &c.--graciously acknowledging at once the completeness and the acceptableness of the surrender as a thing already made. \n\nhouse, &c.--The specification is still more minute in Matthew and Mark, (Mat 19:27; Mar 10:29) to take in every form of self-sacrifice. \n\nfor the kingdom of God's sake--in Mark (Mar 10:29), \"for MY sake and the Gospel's.\" See on Luk 6:22.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["manifold more in this present time--in Matthew (Mat 19:29) \"an hundredfold,\" to which Mark (Mar 10:30) gives this most interesting addition, \"Now in this present time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions.\" We have here the blessed promise of a reconstruction of all human relationships and affections on a Christian basis and in a Christian state, after being sacrificed, in their natural form, on the altar of love to Christ. This He calls \"manifold more\"--\"an hundredfold more\"--than what they sacrificed. Our Lord was Himself the first to exemplify this new adjustment of His own relationships. (See on Mat 12:49-50; and Co2 6:14-18.) But this \"with persecutions\"; for how could such a transfer take place without the most cruel wrenches to flesh and blood? but the persecution would haply follow them into their new and higher circle, breaking that up too! But best of all, \"in the world to come life everlasting.\" And\n\nWhen the shore is won at last \n\nWho will count the billows past? \n\nKEBLE \n\nThese promises are for every one who forsakes his all for Christ. But in Matthew (Mat 19:28) this is prefaced by a special promise to the Twelve: \"Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed Me in the Regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.\" Ye who have now adhered to Me shall, in the new kingdom, rule, or give law to, the great Christian world, here set forth in Jewish dress as the twelve tribes, presided over by the twelve apostles on so many judicial thrones. In this sense certainly the promise has been illustriously fulfilled [CALVIN, GROTIUS, LIGHTFOOT, &c.]. But if the promise refers to the yet future glory (as may be thought from Luk 22:28-30, and as most take it), it points to the highest personal distinction of the first founders of the Christian Church.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["FULLER ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS APPROACHING DEATH AND RESURRECTION. (Luk 18:31-34)\n\nall written by the prophets concerning the Son of man . . . be accomplished--showing how Christ Himself read, and would have us to read, the Old Testament, in which some otherwise evangelical interpreters find no prophecies, or virtually none, of the sufferings of the Son of man.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":34,"content":["understood none, &c.--The Evangelist seems unable to say strongly enough how entirely hidden from them at that time was the sense of these exceeding plain statements: no doubt to add weight to their subsequent testimony, which from this very circumstance was prodigious, and with all the simple-hearted irresistible.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":38,"content":["BLIND MAN HEALED. (Luk 18:35-43)\n\nson of David, &c.--(See on Mat 12:23).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":39,"content":["rebuked, &c.--(See on Luk 18:15). \n\nso much the more--that importunity so commended in the Syrophenician woman, and so often enjoined (Luk 11:5-13; Luk 18:1-8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":40,"content":["commanded, &c.--Mark (Mar 10:49) has this interesting addition: \"And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, He calleth thee\"--just as one earnestly desiring an interview with some exalted person, but told by one official after another that it is vain to wait, as he will not succeed (they know it), yet persists in waiting for some answer to his suit, and at length the door opens, and a servant appears, saying, \"You will be admitted--he has called you.\" And are there no other suitors to Jesus who sometimes fare thus? \"And he, casting away his garment\"--how lively is this touch, evidently of an eye-witness, expressive of his earnestness and joy--\"came to Jesus\" (Mar 10:49-50).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":41,"content":["What wilt thou, &c.--to try them; to deepen their present consciousness of need; and to draw out their faith in Him. Lord \"Rabboni\" (Mar 10:51); an emphatic and confiding exclamation. (See on Joh 20:16.)\n\n\n\n\nNext: Luke Chapter 19\n\n"]}],"introduction":"PARABLE OF THE IMPORTUNATE WIDOW. (Luk 18:1-8)\n\nalways--Compare Luk 18:7, \"night and day.\" \n\nfaint--lose heart, or slacken.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LUK/18.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LUK","chapter":18},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LUK/19.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LUK","chapter":19},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LUK/17.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LUK","chapter":17},"numberOfVerses":28}