{"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":4,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["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.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["acceptable year--an allusion to the jubilee year (Lev 25:10), a year of universal release for person and property. (See also Isa 49:8; Co2 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.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["the minister--the chazan, or synagogue-officer. \n\nall eyes . . . fastened on Him--astounded at His putting in such claims.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["began to say, &c.--His whole address was just a detailed application to Himself of this and perhaps other like prophecies.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["gracious words--\"the words of grace,\" referring both to the richness of His matter and the sweetness of His manner (Psa 45:2). \n\nIs not this, &c.--(See on Mat 13:54-56). They knew He had received no rabbinical education, and anything supernatural they seemed incapable of conceiving.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["this proverb--like our \"Charity begins at home.\" \n\nwhatsoever, &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\" (Mar 6:5); but this seems to have been done quite privately the general unbelief precluding anything more open.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["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 Mat 7:6, on which our Lord Himself ever acted.)\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["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]. \n\nthree years and six months--So Jam 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 Kg1 18:1, which says the rain returned \"in the third year,\" that period is probably not reckoned.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["save . . . saving--\"but only.\" (Compare Mar 13:32, Greek.) \n\nSarepta--\"Zarephath\" (Kg1 17:9), a heathen village between Tyre and Sidon. (See Mar 7:24.)\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["when they heard these things--these allusions to the heathen, just as afterwards with Paul (Act 22:21-22).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["rose up--broke up the service irreverently and rushed forth. \n\nthrust him--with violence, as a prisoner in their hands. \n\nbrow, &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 Ch2 25:12; Kg2 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!\" (Mat 10:36).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["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.)\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["down to Capernaum--It lay on the Sea of Galilee (Mat 4:13), whereas Nazareth lay high.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":33,"content":["DEMONIAC HEALED. (Luk 4:33-37)\n\nunclean--The frequency with which this character of impurity is applied to evil spirits is worthy of notice. \n\ncried out, &c.--(See Mat 8:29; Mar 3:11).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":35,"content":["rebuked them, &c.--(See on Luk 4:41). \n\nthrown him, &c.--See on Mar 9:20.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":36,"content":["What a word--a word from the Lord of spirits.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":41,"content":["PETER'S MOTHER-IN-LAW AND MANY OTHERS, HEALED. (Luk 4:38-41)\n\nsuffered 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 Mat 12:24, &c.; see also Act 16:16-18.)\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":42,"content":["JESUS SOUGHT OUT AT MORNING PRAYER, AND ENTREATED TO STAY, DECLINES FROM THE URGENCY OF HIS WORK. (Luk 4:42-44)\n\nstayed 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 (Mat 8:34).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":43,"content":["I must, &c.--but duty only could move Him to deny entreaties so grateful to His spirit.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Luke Chapter 5\n\n"]}],"introduction":"JESUS ENTERING ON HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY, MAKES A CIRCUIT OF GALILEE--REJECTION AT NAZARETH. (Luke 4:14-32)\n\nas his custom was--Compare Act 17:2. \n\nstood up for to read--Others besides rabbins were allowed to address the congregation. (See Act 13:15.)\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LUK/4.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LUK","chapter":4},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LUK/5.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LUK","chapter":5},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LUK/3.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LUK","chapter":3},"numberOfVerses":19}