IN none of the Synoptic Gospels has the temptation a weightier place than here. Matthew confronts the Messiah with the great enemy of God’s people; and, giving the three closing acts just as they took place, reports them as they illustrate dispensation, and the great impending change, which is emphatically his theme. Mark notes the fact in its due. time, and the devotedness of the blessed Servant of God thus tempted of the devil in the wilderness, with none but the wild beasts near, till at its close, as we know also from Matthew, angels came and ministered to. Him. John characteristically omits the circumstance altogether; for it clearly attached to His being found in fashion as a man (when He emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men), and not to His being God. To Luke it was of capital moment; and the Spirit, as we shall see, saw lit to arrange the order of its parts so as the better to carry out the design by our Evangelist.
Here is noted the transition from Jordan of Jesus, “full of the Holy Ghost” (vs. 1). It might not at first sight appear to be a likely path; but the more one reflects, the more one may see its wisdom and suitability. He was just baptized, sealed of the Spirit, and, above all, owned by the Father as His beloved Son, forthwith led in the Spirit in the wilderness; and there He was forty days tempted of the devil.80 The principle is true of us too. Sons of God by the faith of Jesus, and consciously so by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, we too know what it is to be tempted by the devil. Temptation is hardly the way in which the devil deals with his children; but when we are delivered, such conflicts begin.
The first in order, and this in Matthew too, is the appeal to natural wants. “And in those days he did not eat anything; and when they were finished, he hungered. And the devil said to him, If thou be Son of God, speak to this stone that it become bread.”81 The Lord at once takes the lowliest ground, really the most elevated morally, that the sustenance of nature is not the first consideration, but living by the Word of God. He waits for a word from Him Whose will He was come to do. He refuses even in His hunger to take a single step in the way of satisfying His sinless wants without Divine direction. The true and only right place of man is dependence; and He having become a man, would not swerve from the dependence which referred to God instead of following wishes of His own: indeed, His will was to do God’s will. “And Jesus answered unto him, saying, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God”/81a (vs. 4). Such was the true estate of man, and his right relation to God; and Jesus therein abode, in circumstances of the greatest trial, the bright, contrast of the first Adam, who left it where all circumstance were in his favor.
Historically Israel were so tried and failed totally, spite of that constant lesson in the daily manna of their dependence on God and of His unfailing care of them. They hardened their hearts, not hearing His voice; so that forty years long Jehovah was grieved with that generation, and said, “It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” But the heart of Jesus was toward His Father, and He, with the full power of the Spirit, refused to supply even the most legitimate wants of the body, save in obedience. “My meat,” as He said later, “is to do the will of him that sent me.”
The next here (the third in Matthew, and, as I believe, in the order of occurrence) is the worldly appeal. “And [the devil] leading him up into a high mountain, sheaved him all the kingdoms of the habitable world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him, I will give thee all this power, and the glory, for it is given up to me,82 and to whomsoever will I give it. If, therefore, thou wilt do homage before me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answering him said, It is written, Thou shalt do homage to the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve” (vss. 5-8). The best authenticated text leaves out of the Lord’s answer to the devil “Get thee behind me, Satan; for.” And a little reflection shows that, as the external authority demands this omission, so it seems necessarily to follow from the change of order in which Luke was, I doubt not, guided of God. For the vulgarly received text would give the strange appearance that the Lord told the adversary to get behind or go away, while Satan is represented as staying where he was and tempting the Lord after a new sort. Omit these words, and all flows on in exact connection with the context. Internal evidence is thus in harmony with the external.
In Matthew where the words occur in the third place,83 as in fact it was so, the command to get hence is followed by the devil leaving Him. Thus all is as it should be. In Luke where the transposition occurs, the necessity for omitting the clause is evident; and so it was.
The Lord rebuts the worldly temptations by insisting, according to the written Word, on worshipping the Lord God and serving only Him. Homage to Satan is incompatible with the service of God.
Lastly comes the religious trial. “And he led him to Jerusalem,84 and set him on the edge of the temple,85 and said to him. If thou be Son of God, cast thyself down hence, for it is written, He shall give charge to his angels concerning thee to keep thee; and on their hands they shall bear thee up, lest in any wise thou strike thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said to him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt [the] LORD thy God”. Herwas with hime the devil would separate the way from the end, omitting this part of the psalm which he cites. The Lord replies with the saying in Scripture, “Thou shalt not tempt the LORD thy God.” To trust Him and count on His gracious ways is not to tempt. The Israelites tempted Jehovah by questioning whether He was in their midst or not; they ought to have reckoned on His presence, and succor, and care. Jesus did not need to prove the faithfulness of God to His own Word; He was sure of it and counted on it. He knew that Jehovah would give His angels charge over Him, and this not outside, but to keep Him in all His ways. Thus foiled in his misuse of Scripture, as everywhere else, the enemy could do no more then. “And the devil having completed every temptation, departed from him for a time.”86 Jesus, the Son of God, was victorious, and this in obedience, by the right use of the written Word of God.
It is important to notice that the temptation in the wilderness preceded the active public life of the Lord, as Gethsemane preceded His death in atonement for our sins. It is an utterly false notion that this defeat of Satan in the wilderness was the basis of our redemption. Such, I believe, is Milton’s view in his “Paradise Regained.” But this theory makes victory to be the means of our deliverance from God instead of suffering, and gives consequently the all-importance to living energy, rather than to God’s infinite moral or judicial dealing with our sins on the cross; it puts life in the place of death, and shuts out or ignores expiation. The real object and connection of the temptation is manifest, when we consider that it is the prelude to the Lord’s public life here below, in which He was continually acting on His victory over Satan. When the enemy came again at Gethsemane, it was to turn the Lord aside through the terror of death, and specially of such a death as His on the cross. In the wilderness, and on the mountain, and on the pinnacle of the temple (for there were three different sites and circumstance of this temptation) it was to draw him away from the path of God by the desirable things of the world.
But however this may be, Jesus now returns in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: “and a rumor went out into the whole surrounding country about him. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.”87 This is the general description, I apprehend; but the Spirit of God singles out a very special circumstance which illustrates our Lord in the great design of this Gospel. It is peculiar to Luke.88 “He came to Nazareth [Nazara], where he was brought up: and he entered, according to his custom, into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read.89 And the book of the prophet Esaias was given to him. And having unrolled the book, he found the place where it was written.” It was, in fact, the beginning of Isaiah 61.90 This is the more remarkable because the connection of the prophecy is the total ruin of Israel, and the introduction of the kingdom of God and His glory when judgment takes its course. Yet in the midst of this these verses describe our Lord in the fullness of grace. There is no prophet so evangelical, according to ordinary language, as Isaiah; and in Isaiah there is no portion perhaps of the whole prophecy that so breathes the spirit of the Gospel as these very verses. Now what can be more striking than that this should be read on that occasion by Christ, and that the Spirit of God gives Luke alone to record it? Our Lord takes the book and reads, stopping precisely at the point where mercy terminates. It is the description of His grace in ministry; it is not so much His Person as His devoted life, His work, His ways on earth. In fact, it is pretty much what we have in Acts 10 “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” Immediately after in the prophecy follows “the day of vengeance of our God.” But our Lord does not read these words. Is not this, too, extremely remarkable, that our Lord should stop in the middle of a verse, and read what describes His grace and not what touches on His judgment? Why is this? Because He is come only in grace now. By and by He will come in judgment, and then the other verses of the prophecy will be accomplished. Then it will be both the year of His redeemed when He will bless them, and the day of vengeance when He will execute judgment upon their enemies.
Meanwhile, all that He was about to do in Israel for the present was only gracious activity in the power of the Spirit. To this accordingly God had anointed Him — “to preach glad tidings to [the] poor; he hath sent me [to heal the brokenhearted], to preach to captives deliverance, and to [the] blind sight, to send forth [the] crushed delivered” — and this is what He was to preach — “[the] acceptable year of [the] LORD.”91 “And he rolled up the book.” Now nothing, it is plain, can inure aptly suit the object of the Spirit of God in Luke, who is the only writer inspired to record this. All through the Gospel, this is what He is doing. It is the activity of grace among men’s misery and sins and need.92 By and by He will tread the winepress alone, He will expend the fury of the Lord upon His adversaries; but now it is unmingled mercy. Such was Jesus upon the earth, and so Luke describes Him throughout. No wonder therefore that He closed the book. This was all that was needful or true to say about Him now; the rest will be proved in its own time. The judgment of God in the second advent is as true as the grace of God that He has been showing in the first advent.
Another thing, too, is remarkable and proved by this. It is that the whole state of things since Christ was upon the earth till the second advent is a parenthesis. It is not the accomplishment of prophecy, but the revelation of the mystery that was hid in God that is now brought to view. Prophecy shows us Christ’s first and second advents together; but what is between the two advents is filled up by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, Who is forming the Church wherein there is neither Jew nor Gentile. Prophecy always supposes Jew and Gentile. The Church is founded upon the blotting out of this distinction for the time being. It is during the period when Israel does not own the Messiah, which stretches over all the interval between the two advents of Christ, that this new and heavenly work proceeds.
The Lord therefore stopped dead short, and closed the book. When He comes again, He will, as it were, open the book where He left off 92a Meanwhile, His action was exclusively in grace. The Lord draws their particular attention to this; for when He returns the book to the officer who has it in charge, He sits down. People were all gazing at Him in wonder, He tells them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears.”
But unbelief at once betrays itself. “Is not this the son of Joseph?” They could not deny the grace,93 but they contemn His person: “He was despised and rejected of men.” In point of fact, unbelief is always blind; He was not Joseph’s son,94 except legally — He was God’s Son. “And he said to them, Ye will surely say to me this parable, Physician, heal thyself:95 whatsoever we have heard has taken place in Capernaum, do here also in thine own country.” His answer to their thought was, that “No prophet is acceptable in his [own] country.”96 Nevertheless grace shines out all the more because Christ was rejected. It is remarkable that He does not vindicate Himself by power; He does not work any miracles to make good the rights of His own person, but appeals to the Word of God, the Old Testament Scriptures, for what suited the present time. “Of a truth, I say to you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months,97 so that a great famine came upon all the land; and to none of them was Elias sent, but to Sarepta of Sidon, to a woman [that was] a widow.” Grace, therefore, when Israel rejects (and they were doing so now), goes out to the Gentiles. Sidon was under the special judgment of God, and there was a widow there, reft of all human resources, and she was the one to whom God sent His prophet in the days of deep distress. When Israel themselves were suffering from a terrible famine, God opened stores for the desolate woman in Sidon. Thus grace goes outside His guilty people. So, too, in the time of Elisha the prophet. Many lepers were in Israel, “and none of them was cleansed, but Naaman the Syrian.” Grace is sovereign; and in the days of Jewish unbelief Gentiles are blessed. This Scripture showed; and how beautiful this was and in keeping with Luke! It paves the way for the going forth of the Gospel. When Israel rejected the Lord Jesus, the grace of God must work among the Gentiles, among those who least expect and deserve mercy. How did the men of, Nazareth relish this? They were “filled with rage, and rising up, they cast him forth out of the city, and led him up to the brow of the mountain upon which their city was built, so that they might throw him down the precipice.” This is the expression of the hatred which follows rejection of grace. When self-righteous men are convicted of wrong without feeling their guilt against God, there are no bounds to their resentment; and the enmity of their hearts is most of all against Jesus.
The result of the Lord’s first appearance at Nazareth in the synagogue was that, though He Himself characterized His ministry from the Word of God, or rather the Spirit of God had already anticipated it as He then openly proclaimed it, as being the ministry of grace, by reading this scripture and declaring that it was that day fulfilled in their ears, man soon turns from it in anger and dislike. Attracted at first, he revolted from it afterward, because grace both tells out the ruin of man, and always insists on going out wherever there is need and misery. Nevertheless, the Lord did not make it plainly known that grace should go out to the Gentiles till their rejection of. Himself began to manifest itself. And now the same men who were so smitten with the charm of grace at first were ready to turn upon Him and cast Him down headlong from “the brow of the mountain upon which their city was built. But he, passing through the midst of them, went his way.”98 His time was not yet come.
He “came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee,101 and taught them on the Sabbaths. And they were astonished at his doctrine; for his word was with authority.” 102 This was what Jesus showed. It was not first miracles and then glory, but the truth of God. The Word, not a miracle, forms a connecting link between the soul and God; no miracle can do this — nothing but the Word of God. For the Word addresses itself to faith, while a miracle is done as a sign to unbelief. But as God produces faith by the Word, so He also nourishes it by the Word. This proves the immense value of the Word of God; and Christ’s word was with authority.
“And there was in the synagogue a man having a spirit of an unclean demon.”103 This is the first great work that is recorded in Luke. Our Lord seems already to have done mighty deeds in Capernaum (that is, in this very place) before He went to Nazareth: but Luke begins with Nazareth, in order to characterize His ministry by that wonderful description in the Word of God which opens out grace to man. Now we find Him in Capernaum, and the first miracle recorded of Him here, whilst He was teaching in the synagogue, was the cure of a man possessed with a spirit of an unclean demon which had the consciousness of the power of Jesus. For the demoniac cried out, “Eh! what have we to do with thee, Jesus, Nazarene? 104 Hast thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy [One] of God.” It is remarkable here and elsewhere, the “I” and the “we” — the man himself, and yet the identification with the evil spirit. Moreover, this possessed man says, “I know thee who thou art; the Holy [One] of God.” This appears to be the same character in which Psalms 89 speaks of Christ, where it says, “Jehovah is our shield; and the Holy One of Israel our King” (vs. 18). It is a psalm full of interest because the Holy One there is the sole groundwork of the hopes of the people, as well as the stay of the house of David, otherwise ruined. It is just the same thing in our Gospel, save that Luke goes out more widely. The point of Psalms 89 is that every hope depends on Him. Israel have come to nothing; the glory has waned, and at length departed; the throne is cast down to the ground. But then He is the King, and therefore it is perfectly secured.
The shame of God’s servants shall be removed, and their enemies shall surely be put to perpetual reproach, after the downfall of their pride, and all the painful discipline that the people of Israel shall pass through.
Here the unclean spirit prompts the man to acknowledge Jesus as this Holy One. But He refused such testimony; He did not, even receive the witness of men, how much less of demons! “Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out from him. And the demon, having thrown him down105 into the midst, came out from him without doing him any injury. And astonishment106 came upon all, and they spoke to one another, saying, What word [is] this! for with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. And a rumor went out into every place of the country round concerning him.” He has thus shown that the power of Christ must first put down Satan (but not without, a certain allowed humiliation for man); that this is the chief evil which pollutes and oppresses the world; and that until the day Satan’s power is expelled it is no good to expect full deliverance. We must go to the source of the mischief. This, therefore, is the earliest of the miracles of — Christ brought before us by Luke.107
But then there is also compassion — deep and effectual pity for men. So our Lord, when He leaves the synagogue, goes into the house of Simon.108 “And Simon’s wife’s mother was suffering108a under a great109 fever, and they besought him for her. And, standing over her, he rebuked the fever, and it left her; and immediately standing up, she served them.” Not only was there power to dismiss the disease with a word, but there was, contrary to all nature, strength communicated to her. A “great” fever leaves a person, even when it is gone, exceedingly weak, and a considerable time must elapse before usual vigor returns. But in this case, as the healing was the fruit of Divine power, Peter’s wife’s mother not only arose, but served them immediately.
The same evening, “when the sun went down, all they that had persons sick with divers diseases brought them to him; and having laid his hands on every one110 of them, he healed them.” It made no difference. It was not only that He could cure the fever, but He could cure everything. “He laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.” Another thing to be noticed is the manner of it, the tenderness of feeling — He laid His hands on them. This was in no way necessary; a word would have been enough, and the Lord often employed nothing more than a word. But here He shows His human compassion — He laid His hands upon them and healed them. Demons also came out of many, but we find Him here keeping up the testimony to man of the power that Satan had in the world. There are few things more injurious to men than forgetfulness of the power of Satan. At the present time there is exceeding unbelief on the subject. It is regarded as one of the obsolete delusions of the past. But we find most clearly demons going out of many, not in any one peculiar case, “crying out, and saying, Thou art the Son of God.” These acknowledge the Lord, not as the Holy One of Psalms 89, but as the Anointed One, the Son of God, of Psalms 2. He was the King of Israel in both cases. But the Lord accepted not their testimony in any instance. He really was the Holy One and the Son of God, but it was from God that He took His title, and recognition by the demons He refuses. “They knew that He was the Christ.”111 What a solemn thing to find that man is even more obdurate than Satan! for the demons were more willing to acknowledge Jesus than the men even who were delivered here from the demons, and who were healed of all their diseases. Man for whom Jesus came! What a proof of the incurable unbelief of man, and the certain ruin of those who refuse the Son of God! Devils believe and tremble. Man, even when he does believe with his natural heart, does not tremble. He may believe, but he is insensible in his belief. Can such faith save him? The only faith that is good for anything is that which brings the sinner in his need and ruin before God, and which sees God in infinite mercy giving His Son to die for him. Anything short of this ends in destruction; and so far from natural faith bettering a man, it only brings out his evil, and turns to corruption the more speedily. It is a kind of complimenting the Son of God, instead of a lowly and a true owning of man’s own condition and God’s grace.
But there is another thing which this chapter brings before us — namely, that our Lord departed112 when it was day “into a desert place; and the crowds sought after him, and came up to him, and [would have] kept him back113 that he should not go from them. But he said to them, I must needs announce the glad tidings of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for for this I have been sent forth. And he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.”/114 The great object of the coming of Christ was to preach God’s kingdom;115 it was bringing God and God’s power before men — God’s power visiting man in mercy. No healing of diseases or expulsion of demons could satisfy the Lord. And when He had by His miracles attracted attention in any place, it was the more reason for His going to another. He did not seek His own fame; another Should come in his own name who would. But for our Lord Jesus to attract A name was a reason for departure, not for staying.
Endnotes
80 Verses 1-13. — The TEMPTATION.
“By the Spirit.” Luke has ἐν τῷ πνεύματι (American Revv., “in the S.”); Matthew, ὐπό τοῦ πνεύματος. Comparison of the Evangelists suffices for exclusion, of any such idea as the Unitarian, that the Lords own spirit alone is here meant, according to which the conflict must have been purely mental. “In the Spirit” means “in the power of.” Cf. its use in 11:15, and Weymouth there.
If there were no personal devil (verse 2), then our Lord would have been tempted from within (Norris); and this is what the suggestion comes to — made, amongst others, by J. Weiss (p. 5l) — that it was a mere vision like that in Ezek. 8:33And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. (Ezekiel 8:3), or Isa. 6, or 2 Cor. 12:1-41It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. 3And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) 4How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. (2 Corinthians 12:1‑4). Cf. note on 22:31.
There are three sermons on this subject by Adolphe Monod, and all “Exposition” by Maclaren (vol. i., pp. 78-85).
81 Verse 3. — Note the order: Body, Mind, Spirit (most subtle). Edersheim records the then popular notion that Messiah would feed His people, as Moses did, with manna. Cf. the miraculous feeding of thousands, with Ps. 103:5, 105:40, 132:15, each time of Jehovah.
Dr. Arnold preached from verse 4, on Fasting.
83 Verse 7f. ―The difference of order (see note 81) from that in Zahn would explain by supposing that what JESUS told His disciples about it they repeated differently from memory (“Introduction,” ii., 403 German): but such an exposition as W. Kelly’s is more in accordance with the inspiration of the Evangelist. Zahn shares Alford’s idea that Luke could not have had Matthew’s account before him.
“It is written.” Bettex sententiously remarks, “Satan is silent. For idle there is no Biblical criticism” (“The Book of Truth” p. 125).
84 Verse 9. — “Jerusalem” represents Matthew’s “holy city,” in keeping with the distinction (B. Weiss) between our Evangelist’s use in the original Greek (e.g., at 1:22), cf. Hierosolyma and Jerusalem. Ramsay’s discrimination of “geographical” and “hieratical” (as here) would render a reference to “different sources” (Weiss) quite needless.
85 “Edge,” πτερύγιον, a word common to both Evangelists recording this, end at the same time peculiar. Weiss deems conclusive for his theory of a common source (“Sources of Luke’s Gospel,” p. 100).
Norris: “Faith allied to self-will passes into presumptuous fanaticism.”
86 Verse 13. — “Season.” Wesley (as the Expositor) takes this referable to the scene in Gethsemane (22:53). The other view, according to which our Lord was more or less subject to Satan’s subtle enmity in this way throughout has been based on ch. 22:28. But indeed the form of the Greek, “every temptation,” shows that no form of testing set forth in 1 John 2:1616For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (1 John 2:16) can be excluded. Cf. John 6:1515When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone. (John 6:15), Mark 8:1111And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. (Mark 8:11), Matt. 16:2323But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. (Matthew 16:23).
As to the Lord’s incapacity for sin, see Trench, “Studies in the Gospels,” p. 28.
For the Buddhist parallel adduced (as by Pfleiderer, “Early Conception, etc.,” pp. 51-53), see “Sacred Books of the East,” iv. p. 204.
A difficulty is sometimes raised about no one having witnessed this scene. There is none, however, in supposing that the Lord communicated it to Iris disciples, if not during the Ministry (Garvie suggests, at Cæsarea Philippi), at least during the forty days before His Ascension.
Sermons on the Temptation have been preached by, amongst others, Dither (p. 299), Bishop Andrewes (series of seven), and G. Whitefield.
Between this and the next verse a place may be found for events recorded in John 1:19-4:4219And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? 20And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. 21And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. 22Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? 23He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. 24And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. 25And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? 26John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; 27He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose. 28These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. 29The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 30This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. 31And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. 32And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. 33And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. 34And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God. 35Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; 36And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! 37And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. 38Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou? 39He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour. 40One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. 42And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone. 43The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me. 44Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. 46And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. 47Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! 48Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. 49Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. 50Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. 51And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. 1And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: 2And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. 3And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. 4Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. 5His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. 6And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. 7Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. 8And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. 9When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, 10And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. 11This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him. 12After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days. 13And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, 14And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: 15And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; 16And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise. 17And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. 18Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? 19Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 20Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? 21But he spake of the temple of his body. 22When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said. 23Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. 24But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, 25And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man. 1There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? 5Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 9Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? 10Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? 11Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. 22After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized. 23And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized. 24For John was not yet cast into prison. 25Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. 26And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him. 27John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. 28Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. 29He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. 30He must increase, but I must decrease. 31He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all. 32And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony. 33He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. 34For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. 35The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. 36He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. 1When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, 2(Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) 3He left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. 4And he must needs go through Samaria. 5Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. 7There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. 8(For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) 9Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 10Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 11The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 12Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 15The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. 16Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 17The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. 19The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. 20Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. 21Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 23But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 25The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. 26Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. 27And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? 28The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, 29Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? 30Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. 31In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. 32But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. 33Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? 34Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. 35Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. 36And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 37And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. 38I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor: other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors. 39And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. 40So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. 41And many more believed because of his own word; 42And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. (John 1:19‑4:42), in the interval, that is, between the Temptation and the Galilean ministry of Mark’s framework., This would seem to have embraced visit to Galilee before the imprisonment of the Baptist, and a return to Judæa tor ministry there, with (Briggs suggests, p.1) the sons of Zebedee.
87 Verse 14 f. ― Reference may be made here to Farrar on “Jesus as He lived in Galilee,” “Life of Christ,” chapter 22.; and for Synagogues, to Edersheim, “Jewish Social Life,” chapter 16. f.
As Stock says, it is not likely that any of the teaching (cf. verse 31) here referred to preceded that at Nazareth (verse 16 ff.). He helpfully compares Matt. 4:1313And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: (Matthew 4:13) (p. 70).
88 Verses 16-30. — Upon the question whether Christ was twice rejected at Nazareth, consult Rush Rhees, p. 292f.
89 Verse 17. — This affords illustration of the Lord’s familiarity, by training, with the Hebrew Scriptures. Synagogue rolls were not in Aramaic. A Haftara, or section of the Prophets, was read on Sabbath after the reading of the Law.
90 Verse 18. — The quotation is made up of Isa. 61. and 58:6.
“Anointed,” see Zech. 4:6, 146Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6)
14Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. (Zechariah 4:14). “Thus early did He claim to be Messiah” (Stalker, p. 131). Prophecy prepared men for a Messiah working miracles, of ch. 11:20.
Henry Venn preached from verse 181., on “The Work of Christ.”
A question that has been discussed since the Patristic period is, of what duration was our Lord’s ministry? The present verse was of old supposed to indicate thrift the Synoptic ministry lasted only one year.
The Synoptists nowhere say that the ministry extended over only a single year. On the other hand, when Jülicher says that it is “childish” to use 13:7 of this Gospel in support of a three years’ ministry, it would be none the less so understand the present passage as so limiting it. By comparison of the third and the last Gospels, we may venture to say that the
Origen, Jerome, and Augustine, allowing for a Fourth Passover in John’s Gospel (cf. note 53 on John), concluded that the period was from three years to three years and a half. Turner (art. “Chronology of the New Testament” in Hastings’ “Dict. of the Bible”) makes it “between two and three years.”
Blass has observed that Mark (Peter) would not so readily report in Jerusalem what had happened there, as that which the Jerusalemites could net know. Similarly Matthew, and also Luke if he composed any part of his Gospel in Judæa. With reference to 13:34, the Halle Professor has written: “It is John who first clears up the passage and justifies it” (Expository Times, July, 1907). Luther and Lightfoot had already made use of it.
92 Verse 21. — Here is the Lord’s first direct statement to Israelites of His Messianic claims: of John 4:2626Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. (John 4:26). See Whyte, “Walk, Conversation, and Character of Jesus Christ our Lord,” chapter 10; “Our Lord’s First Text”; also chapter 29, “Our Lord and the Bible.” Frennsen, a recent German revolutionary writer, has made use of this passage of Luke in his “Holy Land,” chapter 26. (E. T., p. 315). C. Kingsley’s sermon, “The Message of the Church to Laboring Men” is from this passage.
92a Cf. Rev. 5, 6.
93 Verse 22. — “Words of grace,” cf. Ps. 45:2. Westcott: “To substitute gracious words [A.V.] would be to obscure the truth” (“Some Lessons, etc.,” p. 33): cf. Acts 14:3; 20:323Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. (Acts 14:3)
32And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. (Acts 20:32).
94 “Joseph’s son.” Mark, although reliance is placed on 4:3 of his Gospel for modern denial of the Virgin Birth (cf. note 57 on Mark, note 30 above, and see Wright, “Introduction to Synopsis, etc.,” p. 41.), speaks of the “carpenter, the Son of Mary,” whilst Luke, who is discredited when he records it as a miraculous event, in his parallel to Mark has the above description. It would be absurd to have to suppose that Joseph is regarded as dead at the point of the narrative of the one Evangelist, but still alive by the other. Again, it is in Luke that we meet with “His parents” and “Thy father.” Accordingly, critics can but conceive editorial variations in each Gospel, all of which suggestions (e.g., Wright’s “Trito-Mark”) must be taken for what they are worth. Anything like proof in the sense of our English High Court of Justice (see note 56 on Mark, ad fin.) is rare indeed.
95 Verse 23. — For this proverb (“parable”), see Talmud, “Bereshith Rabba,” sect. 23. It is still current amongst Jews in the form “He is a physician for others, not for Himself.”
“Capernaum.” It would not require the training of a critic to see that, front the reference to great deeds there, this section is out of chronological order.
97 Verse 25. — “Three years and six months,” as in James 5:1717Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. (James 5:17): cf. 1 Kings 18:11And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth. (1 Kings 18:1). The period of drought may have been so stated according to a symbol of misfortune (Dan. 12:77And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. (Daniel 12:7)); so De Wette, followed by Weiss.
98 Verse 30. — Here is another link with the Gospel of John (9:59).
99 Verses 31-37. — From here to 7:16, Luke’s account is in close touch with that of Mark: see Harnack’s “Luke the Physician,” p. 87
100 Marcion’s recension of Luke begins here. He passed over the Baptist as one belonging to the Old Dispensation. Marcion may be regarded as the fiat Biblical critic (Harnack, “History of Dogma,” pp. 237-240; cf. Bebb, art. in Hastings’ “Dict. of Bible,” and Burkitt, chapter 9). What we know of pine (cf. notes 14, 17, above) comes chiefly from Tertullian, Adv. Marc. v., and Epiphanius, Hær. 42. Irenæus says that he “mutilated the Scriptures ... curtailing the Gospel according to Luke and the Epistles of Paul” (3:12, 12) Semler suggested that our Gospel and Marcion’s were compiled from the same original source; and after his time arose the idea that the Gospel according to Luke was an expansion of that used by Marcion; but critics seem now all to have returned to the old view. The passages omitted by this Gnostic et: enumerated in Gloag’s work.
Marcion’s system was strongly Anti-Jewish; he questioned our Lord, speaking as in Matt. 5:1717Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. (Matthew 5:17) (Tertullian., Adv. Marc. 4:7, 5:14; but of Luke 16:1717And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. (Luke 16:17)). The third Gospel was the only elm that he seems to have recognized; and the use which he made in connection with it of some of the Pauline Epistles, may have sustained the impression that there is a strong Pauline cast upon Luke’s record. See Godet, “New Testament Studies,” p. 44. This Pauline coloring has been specially investigated by Resch in vol. 12. (1904) of the New Series of Monographs edited by Gebhardt and Harnack (see in particular p. 571, ff. of his Dissertation). Cf. Swete, “St. Paul assimilated that side of our Lord’s teaching which this Gospel has specially preserved” (“Studies in the Teaching of our Lord,” p. 119). It is generally admitted that there are passages in LUKE alien to parts of the Epistles, e.g., 12:35 compared with Eph. 6:14; 18:114Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; (Ephesians 6:14) with 2 Thess. 1:11; 21:3411Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: (2 Thessalonians 1:11) with 1 Thess. 5:3; 29:343For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:3) with 1 Cor. 15.; whilst chapter 21 may be read throughout alongside of 1 Thess. 5. As for 10:7 (cf. 1 Tim. 5:1818For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The laborer is worthy of his reward. (1 Timothy 5:18) and 1 Cor. 9:1414Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. (1 Corinthians 9:14)) see note there. The Expositor, it will be seen, compares Luke’s Gospel with the Epistle to the Romans.
The attempt of H. H. Evans to establish Paul’s authorship of this Gospel and of the Book of Acts (1884), although it has been commended by some German writers, seems to have attracted little attention in this country. Evans brought out the interesting fact that of 1750 words peculiar, to LUKE amongst the Evangelists, one-half are found in Paul’s Epistles; also that 250 words occurring in both this Gospel and the Acts are not to be found elsewhere in the New Testament outside the Apostle’s writings (p. 20f.; cf. note 29 above).
The interest of this subject now lies in its connection with the cry “Back to Christ!” expressed by Carpenter as “transfer of the center of interest from Paul to Christ” (“The Bible in the Nineteenth Century,” p. 341), as if the Reformers were not radical enough in contenting themselves with recovery of Pauline truth (and that, as the Expositor would have said, to a very limited extent). It is true that our Lord’s teaching was “the word of the beginning of the Christ” (Heb. 6:11Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, (Hebrews 6:1)), and that Luke “had in mind the Lord Jesus Christ as the risen Saviour” (Bruce, Introduction to “Expositor’s Greek Testament,” i.); but, as Fairbairn has said, “What gives to the Gospels their peculiar significance is that they are lives of Jesus by men who believed that Christ had created Christianity. The struggle of the modern spirit is to get behind the faith of the Evangelists and read the history they wrote with the vision they had before their eyes were opened” (“Philosophy of the Christian Religion,” p. 306); cf. note 30, ad. fin. (Wellhausen).
101 “Capernaum,” cf. note on verse 23. See Delitzsch, “A Day in Capernaum.” Matt. 4:1313And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: (Matthew 4:13) tells us that it became the Lord’s place of residence, so far as He had one, in Galilee. Cf. note 22 on Mark (“His own city”).
103 Verse 33. — “Spirit of unclean demon”; cf. 6:18; 11:24, “unclean spirit.” Lightfoot (Horn; Hebr., on 13:11, “spirit of infirmity”) records a distinction made between spirits causing disease and “evil spirits,” occupied with sorcery and accordingly called “unclean.” Probably Luke’s “unclean” was adapted to Gentile thought, for that recognized a distinction between good and bad “demons.” Zech. 13:22And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. (Zechariah 13:2) and Rev. 16:1313And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. (Revelation 16:13)f. show the connection of unclean spirits with false prophets.
Renan speaks of the wilderness as “haunted according to popular belief by demons.” Of, however, Maurice, “Not in deserts, but in places of concourse, in the synagogues we hear of them.” “Let its fly from superstitions,” says the critic. “We do not hear less of spirits... in this day than in former days. I do not perceive that even scientific men can point to deliverance from a superstition... not a few succumb,” etc. (p. 6211). A notable instance was Lord Herbert of Cherbury, a deistical apostle of “the philosophy of common sense” who looked for a sign if he was to publish his “Tractatus de Veritate.” Of course, he heard a sound from heaven such as he desired.
104 Verse 34. — “Nazarene,” see note on John 18:55They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. (John 18:5). “Matthew,” writes Weiss, “always has Nazarean, Luke nearly always has Nazarene” (“Sources of Luke’s Gospel,” p. 12).
105 Verse 35. — “Having thrown him down.” This does not conflict with Mark’s tearing him; the convulsions left no evil effect (Darby-Smith).
106 Verse 36 — The word θάμβος is peculiar to Luke (v. 9; Acts: 3:10 “Wonder”).
107 Verse 37. — This miracle is one of the seven performed on Sabbaths, the rest of which are — in verse 38 here, 6:6 ff., 13:10 ff., 14:1, and two in John (5:9 ff., and 9:1 ff.).
The temper of our age is, of course, adverse to MIRACLE. No “intelligent man” is expected any longer to rest the truth of Christianity at all upon operation in times past of “the powers of the age to come,” at the dawn of which Christ’s words in 18:8 of this Gospel will have their application. We may not be far off that time now. The American Professor Foster writes: “An intelligent man who now affirms his faith in miraculous narratives like the Biblical, can hardly know what intellectual honesty means” (p. 132). But do not sensible men in all countries correct their logic by their experience? el, Kaftan, “The Truth of the Christian Religion,” vol. ii., p. 130 f.; also Orr, “The Bible under Trial,” p. 152. indeed, Ritschl, with all his dislike of metaphysics, has said: “Everyone will meet the miraculous in his own experience” (“Instruction in the Christian Religion,” p. 189, note. cf. Wesley’s note on Mark 16:1818They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Mark 16:18); it seems to have been derived from Bengel’s Gnomon, “Even at this day in every believer faith has a latent miraculous power.” Those who imagine that belief in miracle is not essential to Christianity, if consistent, must surrender prayer in the Christian sense. Huxley has amended Hume’s argument upon miracles, which in his revised form — consonant with the views of J. S. Mill — makes it all a question of evidence, whilst it is by the aid of Hume’s own philosophy that Fairbairn has criticized the eighteenth-century writer’s treatment of the subject (“Philosophy of the Christian Religion,” p. 25 ff.).
Harnack, in an unwonted manner, goes almost into rhapsody over the sure ground afforded by agreement of “Q” with Mark (“Sayings,” p. 249). It is certain that “Q,” if ever it existed, harmonized with the same canonical gospel as regards the large amount of Christ’s “supernatural energy” — this is generally conceded.
A medical writer in the Hibbert Journal (April, 1907) has confessed that many of the disorders recorded could not have been cured by moral therapeutics (auto-suggestion).
The Biblical miracles seem to have closed with the incidents of the last chapter of the Acts, when Paul definitely gave up his testimony to the Jews, for whom they were intended (cf. 1 Cor. 1:2222For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: (1 Corinthians 1:22)), in Fulfillment of Isaiah. Contrast the cast of Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:2525Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labor, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. (Philippians 2:25) ff.): “Why did not the Apostle heal him?” (cf. Sir R. Anderson, “The Silence of God,” p. 57f.)
Besides Butler’s “Analogy,” part 2, chapters 2, 7, in this connection, the following recent literature well repays consultation: — Mozley’s Bampton Lecture, (6th ed., 1883), Westcott’s “Gospel of Life” (chapter 7.), Sanday’s “The Life of Christ in Recent Research” (section 8.), Boyd Kinnear’s “The Foundation of Religion” (chapter 10.), Dr. Jas. Drummond’s “The Miraculous in Christianity” — candid like all that he writes — Bettex’s “Modern Science and Christianity” (E. T., 1903), pp. 162-185; and not least Dr. L. von Gerdtell’s pamphlet on “Miracles before the Forum of Modern Thought” (still only in German; see note 52 on John and the Christian of 12th Oct., 1911, p. 17). For the connection of the transcendent character of JESUS with His miracles, see Rush Rhees, pp. 249-269.
An extract from Illingworth may close this note: “Miracles flow naturally from a Person... at home in two worlds.... We cannot separate the wondaful life, or the wonderful teaching, from the wonderful works. They involve and interpenetrate and presuppose each other” (“Divine Immanence,” p. 90.)
There is a classification of the Lucan Miracles in Westcott, “Introduction to the Study of the Gospels,” p. 392f. See further, notes 27 and 58 on Mark.
108 Verse 38. — Another illustration (cf. note on verse 23) of Luke’s non-chronological order; nothing hitherto has been said about Simon, who is introduced abruptly.
108a Verse 39. — For the compound imperfect in the creek, cf. verse 44 and v. 16f. See also note 108 on Mark.
109 An instance of the Evangelist’s special medical knowledge (cf. note 2). “Great fever” describes typhus. See again 8:41 etc.
110 Verse 40. — Cf. Mark 1:3232And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. (Mark 1:32), where critics pounce upon “many” as if improved upon here by “all,” “every one.” Mark may mean “many they were that,” etc., in the modern manner.
111 Verse 41. — Here is the point of contact with the other Synoptists.
112 Verse 42. — “Coming out” is understood by De Wette as from Capernaum.
113 Note the imperfect tense: “Would have kept — were for keeping — Him back.”
114 Verse 43 f. — The reading “Judæa.” Godet has remarked that this “neutral” reading should have been a lesson to Westcott and Hort. If it be accepted, it must mean the whole land, as in 1:51 (see note there). For the ministry in Judea proper, cf. 13:34, 19: 31, 22:14, Acts 2:9, 10:37.
115 As to the “Kingdom of God,” regarded by Ritschlians as the center of Christ’s teaching, see note 21 on Mark, and cf. notes below on 12:31, 17, and 19:12.
Some conceive that verse 43 marks the end of a section in one of Luke’s sources (Zahn, p. 373),