{"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":21,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["two mites--\"which make a farthing\" (Mar 12:42), the smallest Jewish coin. \"She might have kept one\" [BENGEL].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["And he said--\"to His disciples,\" whom He \"called to Him\" (Mar 12:43), to teach from it a great future lesson. \n\nmore than . . . all--in proportion to her means, which is God's standard (Co2 8:12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["of their abundance--their superfluity; what they had to spare,\" or beyond what they needed. \n\nof her penury--or \"want\" (Mar 12:44) --her deficiency, of what was less than her own wants required, \"all the living she had.\" Mark (Mar 12:44) still more emphatically, \"all that she had--her whole subsistence.\" Note: (1) As temple offerings are needed still for the service of Christ at home and abroad, so \"looking down\" now, as then \"up,\" Me \"sees\" who \"cast in,\" and how much. (2) Christ's standard of commendable offering is not our superfluity, but our deficiency--not what will never be missed, but what costs us some real sacrifice, and just in proportion to the relative amount of that sacrifice. (See Co2 8:1-3.)\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["CHRIST'S PROPHECY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM AND WARNINGS TO PREPARE FOR HIS SECOND COMING, SUGGESTED BY IT--HIS DAYS AND NIGHTS DURING HIS LAST WEEK. (Luke 21:5-38)\n\n(See on Mat 24:1-3.)\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["the time--of the Kingdom, in its full glory. \n\ngo . . . not . . . after them--\"I come not so very soon\" (Th2 2:1-2) [STIER].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["not terrified--(See Luk 21:19; Isa 8:11-14). \n\nend not by and by--or immediately, not yet (Mat 24:6; Mar 13:7): that is, \"Worse must come before all is over.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["Nation, &c.--Matthew and Mark (Mat 24:8; Mar 13:8) add, \"All these are the beginning of sorrows,\" or travail pangs, to which heavy calamities are compared (Jer 4:31, &c.).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["brought before, &c.--The book of Acts verifies all this.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["for a testimony--an opportunity of bearing testimony.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["not a hair . . . perish--He had just said (Luk 21:16) they should be put to death; showing that this precious promise is far above immunity from mere bodily harm, and furnishing a key to the right interpretation of the ninety-first Psalm, and such like. Matthew adds the following (Mat 24:12): \"And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many,\" the many or, the most--the generality of professed disciples--\"shall wax cold.\" But he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Sad illustrations of the effect of abounding iniquity in cooling the love of faithful disciples we have in the Epistle of James, written about this period referred to, and too frequently ever since (Heb 10:38-39; Rev 2:10). \"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness, and then shall the end come\" (Mat 24:14). God never sends judgment without previous warning; and there can be no doubt that the Jews, already dispersed over most known countries, had nearly all heard the Gospel \"as a witness,\" before the end of the Jewish state. The same principle was repeated and will repeat itself to the end.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["by armies--encamped armies, that is, besieged: \"the abomination of desolation\" (meaning the Roman ensigns, as the symbols of an idolatrous, pagan, unclean power) \"spoken of by Daniel the prophet\" (Dan 9:27) \"standing where it ought not\" (Mar 13:14). \"Whoso readeth [that prophecy] let him understand\" (Mat 24:15). \n\nThen . . . flee, &c.--EUSEBIUS says the Christians fled to Pella, at the north extremity of Perea, being \"prophetically directed\"; perhaps by some prophetic intimation still more explicit than this, which still would be their chart.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["woe unto--\"alas for.\" \n\nwith child, &c.--from the greater suffering it would involve; as also \"flight in winter, and on the sabbath,\" which they were to \"pray\" against (Mat 24:20), the one as more trying to the body, the other to the soul. \"For then shall be tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world, nor ever shall be\"--language not unusual in the Old Testament for tremendous calamities, though of this it may perhaps be literally said, \"And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened\" (Mat 24:21-22). But for this merciful \"shortening,\" brought about by a remarkable concurrence of causes, the whole nation would have perished, in which there yet remained a remnant to be afterwards gathered out. Here in Matthew and Mark (Mat 24:24; Mar 13:22) are some particulars about \"false Christs,\" who should, \"if possible\"--a precious clause--\"deceive the very elect.\" (Compare Th2 2:9-11; Rev 13:13.)\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["Jerusalem . . . trodden down . . . until, &c.--Implying (1) that one day Jerusalem shall cease to be \"trodden down by the Gentiles\" (Rev 11:2), as then by pagan so now by Mohammedan unbelievers; (2) that this shall be at the \"completion\" of \"the times of the Gentiles,\" which from Rom 11:25 (taken from this) we conclude to mean till the Gentiles have had their full time of that place in the Church which the Jews in their time had before them--after which, the Jews being again \"grafted into their own olive tree,\" one Church of Jew and Gentile together shall fill the earth (Rom. 11:1-36). What a vista this opens up!\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["signs, &c.--Though the grandeur of this language carries the mind over the head of all periods but that of Christ's second coming, nearly every expression will be found used of the Lord's coming in terrible national judgments, as of Babylon, &c.; and from Luk 21:28, Luk 21:32, it seems undeniable that its immediate reference was to the destruction of Jerusalem, though its ultimate reference beyond doubt is to Christ's final coming.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["redemption--from the oppression of ecclesiastical despotism and legal bondage by the total subversion of the Jewish state and the firm establishment of the evangelical kingdom (Luk 21:31). But the words are of far wider and more precious import. Matthew (Mat 24:30) says, \"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven,\" evidently something distinct from Himself, mentioned immediately after. What this was intended to mean, interpreters are not agreed. But as before Christ came to destroy Jerusalem, some appalling portents were seen in the air, so before His personal appearing it is likely that something analogous will be witnessed, though of what nature it is vain to conjecture.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":32,"content":["This generation--not \"this nation,\" as some interpret it, which, though admissible in itself, seems very unnatural here. It is rather as in Luk 9:27.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":34,"content":["surfeiting, and drunkenness--All animal excesses, quenching spirituality. \n\ncares of this life--(See on Mar 4:7; Mar 4:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":36,"content":["Watch . . . pray, &c.--the two great duties which in prospect of trial are constantly enjoined. These warnings, suggested by the need of preparedness for the tremendous calamities approaching, and the total wreck of the existing state of things, are the general improvement of the whole discourse, carrying the mind forward to Judgment and Vengeance of another kind and on a grander and more awful scale--not ecclesiastical or political but personal, not temporal but eternal--when all safety and blessedness will be found to lie in being able to \"STAND BEFORE THE SON OF MAN\" in the glory of His personal appearing.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":37,"content":["in the daytime--of this His last week. \n\nabode in the mount--that is, at Bethany (Mat 21:17).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Luke Chapter 22\n\n"]}],"introduction":"THE WIDOW'S TWO MITES. (Luk 21:1-4)\n\nlooked up--He had \"sat down over against the treasury\" (Mar 12:41), probably to rest, for He had continued long standing as he taught in the temple court (Mar 11:27), and \"looking up He saw\"--as in Zaccheus' case, not quite casually. \n\nthe rich, &c.--\"the people,\" says Mar 12:41 \"cast money into the treasury, and many rich east in much\"; that is, into chests deposited in one of the courts of the temple to receive the offerings of the people towards its maintenance (Kg2 12:9; Joh 8:20).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LUK/21.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LUK","chapter":21},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LUK/22.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LUK","chapter":22},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LUK/20.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LUK","chapter":20},"numberOfVerses":19}