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Title = 'The Gospel According to Luke';
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<p id="Chapter10" align="center">Commentary by DAVID BROWN<br>CHAPTER 10
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<p id="Lu10_1"><a onclick="return mV('Luk',10,'1-24');">Luk 10:1-24</a>. MISSION OF THE SEVENTY DISCIPLES, AND THEIR RETURN.
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<p>As our Lord's end approaches, the preparations for the establishment of the coming Kingdom are quickened and extended.
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<p><b>1. the Lord</b>—a becoming title here, as this appointment was an act truly <i>lordly</i> [BENGEL].
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<br><br><b>other seventy also</b>—rather, "others (also in number), seventy"; probably with allusion to the seventy elders of Israel on whom the Spirit descended in the wilderness (<a onclick="return mV('Num',11,24,25);">Num 11:24-25</a>). The mission, unlike that of the Twelve, was evidently quite <i>temporary.</i> All the instructions are in keeping with a brief and hasty <i>pioneering</i> mission, intended to supply what of general preparation for coming events the Lord's own visit afterwards to the same "cities and places" (<a onclick="return mV('Luk',10,1);">Luk 10:1</a>) would not, from want of time, now suffice to accomplish; whereas the instructions to the Twelve, besides embracing all those to the Seventy, contemplate <i>world-wide</i> and <i>permanent</i> effects. Accordingly, after their return from this single missionary tour, we never again read of the Seventy.
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<p id="Lu10_2"><b>2. The harvest,</b> etc.—(See on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Mat/Mat009.html#Mt9_37">Mat 9:37</a>).
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<br><br><b>pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest</b>—(See on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Mat/Mat009.html#Mt9_38">Mat 9:38</a>).
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<p id="Lu10_3"><b>3-12.</b> (See on JFB for <a onclick="return mV('Mat',10,'7-16');">Mat 10:7-16</a>).
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<p id="Lu10_10"><b>10. son of peace</b>—inwardly prepared to embrace your message of peace. See note on "worthy," (see on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Mat/Mat010.html#Mt10_13">Mat 10:13</a>).
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<p id="Lu10_12"><b>12-15.</b> (See on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Mat/Mat011.html#Mt11_20">Mat 11:20-24</a>).
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<br><br><b>for Sodom</b>—Tyre and Sidon were ruined by commercial prosperity; Sodom sank through its vile pollutions: but the doom of otherwise correct persons who, amidst a blaze of light, reject the Saviour, shall be <i>less endurable</i> than that of any of these.
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<p id="Lu10_16"><b>16. He that,</b> etc.—(See on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Mat/Mat010.html#Mt10_40">Mat 10:40</a>).
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<p id="Lu10_17"><b>17. returned</b>—evidently not long away.
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<br><br><b>Lord,</b> etc.—"Thou hast exceeded Thy promise, for '<i>even the devils,</i>'" etc. The possession of such power, not being expressly in their commission, as in that to the Twelve (<a onclick="return mV('Luk',9,1);">Luk 9:1</a>), filled them with more astonishment and joy than all else.
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<br><br><b>through thy name</b>—taking no credit to themselves, but feeling lifted into a region of unimagined superiority to the powers of evil simply through their connection with Christ.
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<p id="Lu10_18"><b>18. I beheld</b>—As much of the force of this glorious statement depends on the nice shade of sense indicated by the <i>imperfect tense</i> in the original, it should be brought out in the translation: "I was beholding Satan as lightning falling from heaven"; that is, "I followed you on your mission, and watched its triumphs; while you were wondering at the subjection to you of devils in My name, a grander spectacle <i>was opening</i> to My view; sudden as the darting of lightning from heaven to earth, lo! Satan was beheld falling from heaven!" How remarkable is this, that by that law of association which connects a part with the whole, those feeble triumphs of the Seventy seem to have not only brought vividly before the Redeemer the whole ultimate result of His mission, but compressed it into a moment and quickened it into the rapidity of lightning! <i>Note.</i>—The word rendered "<i>devils,</i>" is always used for those spiritual agents employed in <i>demoniacal possessions</i>—never for the ordinary agency of Satan in rational men. When therefore the Seventy say, "the <i>devils</i> [demons] are subject to us," and Jesus replies, "Mine eye was beholding <i>Satan falling,</i>" it is plain that He meant to raise their minds not only from the <i>particular</i> to the <i>general,</i> but from a very <i>temporary</i> form of satanic operation to <i>the entire kingdom of evil.</i> (See <a onclick="return mV('Jhn',12,31);">Jhn 12:31</a>; and compare <a onclick="return mV('Isa',14,12);">Isa 14:12</a>).
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<p id="Lu10_19"><b>19. Behold, I give you,</b> etc.—not for any renewal of their mission, though probably many of them afterwards became ministers of Christ; but simply as disciples.
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<br><br><b>serpents and scorpions</b>—the latter more venomous than the former: literally, in the first instance (<a onclick="return mV('Mar',16,17,18);">Mar 16:17-18</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Act',28,5);">Act 28:5</a>); but the next words, "<i>and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you,</i>" show that the glorious power of faith to "overcome the world" and "quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one," by the communication and maintenance of which to His people He makes them <i>innocuous,</i> is what is meant (<a onclick="return mV('1Jo',5,4);">1Jo 5:4</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Eph',6,16);">Eph 6:16</a>).
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<p id="Lu10_20"><b>20. rejoice not,</b> etc.—that is, not so much. So far from forbidding it, He takes occasion from it to tell them what had been passing in His own mind. But as power over demons was after all intoxicating, He gives them a higher joy to <i>balance</i> it, the joy of having their names in Heaven's register (<a onclick="return mV('Phl',4,3);">Phl 4:3</a>).
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<p id="Lu10_21"><b>21, 22. Jesus...said,</b> etc.—The very same sublime words were uttered by our Lord on a former similar occasion (see on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Mat/Mat011.html#Mt11_25">Mat 11:25-27</a>); but (1) There we are merely told that He "answered and said" thus; here, He "<i>rejoiced in spirit</i> and said," etc. (2) There it was merely "at that time" (or season) that He spoke thus, meaning with a general reference to the rejection of His gospel by the self-sufficient; here, "<i>In that hour</i> Jesus said," with express reference probably to the humble class from which He had to draw the Seventy, and the similar class that had chiefly welcomed their message. "Rejoice" is too weak a word. It is "exulted in spirit"—evidently giving visible expression to His unusual emotions; while, at the same time, the words "in spirit" are meant to convey to the reader the <i>depth</i> of them. This is one of those rare cases in which the veil is lifted from off the Redeemer's inner man, that, angel-like, we may "look into it" for a moment (<a onclick="return mV('1Pe',1,12);">1Pe 1:12</a>). Let us gaze on it with reverential wonder, and as we perceive what it was that produced that mysterious ecstasy, we shall find rising in our hearts a still rapture—"Oh, the depths!"
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<p id="Lu10_23"><b>23, 24.</b> (See on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Mat/Mat013.html#Mt13_16">Mat 13:16, 17</a>).
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<p id="Lu10_25"><a onclick="return mV('Luk',10,'25-37');">Luk 10:25-37</a>. QUESTION OF A LAWYER AND PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN.
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<p><b>25. tempted him</b>—"tested him"; in no hostile spirit, yet with no tender anxiety for light on that question of questions, but just to see what insight this great Galilean teacher had.
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<p id="Lu10_26"><b>26. What is written in the law</b>—apposite question to a doctor of the <i>law,</i> and putting him in turn to the test [BENGEL].
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<p id="Lu10_27"><b>27. Thou shalt,</b> etc.—the answer Christ Himself gave to another lawyer. (See on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Mar/Mar012.html#Mr12_29">Mar 12:29-33</a>).
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<p id="Lu10_28"><b>28. he said,</b> etc.—"Right; THIS do, and life is thine"—laying such emphasis on "this" as to indicate, without expressing it, <i>where the real difficulty to a sinner lay,</i> and thus nonplussing the questioner himself.
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<p id="Lu10_29"><b>29. willing</b>—"wishing," to get himself out of the difficulty, by throwing on Jesus the definition of "neighbor," which the Jews interpreted very narrowly and technically, as excluding Samaritans and Gentiles [ALFORD].
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<p id="Lu10_30"><b>30. A certain man</b>—a Jew.
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<br><br><b>from Jerusalem to Jericho</b>—a distance of nineteen miles northeast, a deep and very fertile hollow—"the <i>Temple</i> of Judea" [TRENCH].
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<br><br><b>thieves</b>—"robbers." The road, being rocky and desolate, was a notorious haunt of robbers, then and for ages after, and even to this day.
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<p id="Lu10_31"><b>31, 32. came down a...priest...and a Levite</b>—Jericho, the second city of Judea, was a city of the priests and Levites, and thousands of them lived there. The two here mentioned are supposed, apparently, to be returning from <i>temple duties,</i> but they had not learnt what that meaneth, 'I will have mercy and not sacrifice' [TRENCH].
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<br><br><b>saw him</b>—It was not <i>inadvertently</i> that he acted.
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<br><br><b>came and looked</b>—a further aggravation.
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<br><br><b>passed by</b>—although the law expressly required the opposite treatment even of the <i>beast</i> not only of their <i>brethren,</i> but of their <i>enemy</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',22,4);">Deu 22:4</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Exd',23,4);">Exd 23:4-5</a>; compare <a onclick="return mV('Isa',58,7);">Isa 58:7</a>).
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<p id="Lu10_33"><b>33. Samaritan</b>—one excommunicated by the Jews, a byword among them, synonymous with heretic and devil (<a onclick="return mV('Jhn',8,48);">Jhn 8:48</a>; see on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Luk/Luk017.html#Lu17_18">Luk 17:18</a>).
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<br><br><b>had compassion</b>—His best is mentioned first; for "He who gives outward things gives something <i>external to himself,</i> but he who imparts compassion and tears gives him something <i>from his very self</i>" [GREGORY THE GREAT, in TRENCH]. No doubt the priest and Levite had their excuses—It is not safe to be lingering here; besides, he's past recovery; and then, may not suspicion rest upon ourselves? So might the Samaritan have reasoned, <i>but did not</i> [TRENCH]. Nor did he say, He's a Jew, who would have had no dealings with me (<a onclick="return mV('Jhn',4,9);">Jhn 4:9</a>), and why should I with him?
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<p id="Lu10_34"><b>34. oil and wine</b>—the remedies used in such cases all over the East (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',1,6);">Isa 1:6</a>), and elsewhere; the <i>wine</i> to cleanse the wounds, the <i>oil</i> to assuage their smartings.
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<br><br><b>on his own beast</b>—himself going on foot.
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<p id="Lu10_35"><b>35. two pence</b>—equal to two day's wages of a laborer, and enough for several days' support.
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<p id="Lu10_36"><b>36. Which...was neighbour?</b>—a most dexterous way of putting the question: (1) Turning the question from, "Whom am I to love as my neighbour?" to "Who is the man that shows that love?" (2) Compelling the lawyer to give a reply very different from what he would like—not only condemning his own nation, but those of them who should be the most exemplary. (3) Making him commend one of a deeply hated race. And he does it, but it is almost extorted. For he does not answer, "The Samaritan"—that would have sounded heterodox, heretical—but "He that showed mercy on him." It comes to the same thing, no doubt, but the circumlocution is significant.
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<p id="Lu10_37"><b>37. Go,</b> etc.—O exquisite, matchless teaching! What new fountains of charity has not this opened up in the human spirit—rivers in the wilderness, streams in the desert! What noble Christian institutions have not such words founded, all undreamed of till that wondrous One came to bless this heartless world of ours with His incomparable love—first in words, and then in deeds which have translated His words into flesh and blood, and poured the life of them through that humanity which He made His own! Was this parable, now, designed to magnify the law of love, and to show who fulfils it and who not? And who did this as never man did it, as our Brother Man, "our Neighbor?" The priests and Levites had not strengthened the diseased, nor bound up the broken (<a onclick="return mV('Eze',34,4);">Eze 34:4</a>), while He bound up the brokenhearted (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',61,1);">Isa 61:1</a>), and poured into all wounded spirits the balm of sweetest consolation. All the Fathers saw through the thin veil of this noblest of stories, <i>the</i> Story of love, and never wearied of tracing the analogy (though sometimes fancifully enough) [TRENCH]. Exclaims GREGORY NAZIANZEN (in the fourth century), "He hungered, but He fed thousands; He was weary, but He is the Rest of the weary; He is saluted 'Samaritan' and 'Demoniac,' but He <i>saves him that went down from Jerusalem and fell among thieves,</i>" etc.
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<p id="Lu10_38"><a onclick="return mV('Luk',10,'38-42');">Luk 10:38-42</a>. MARTHA AND MARY.
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<p><b>38. certain village</b>—Bethany (<a onclick="return mV('Jhn',11,1);">Jhn 11:1</a>), which Luke so speaks of, having no farther occasion to notice it.
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<br><br><b>received him...her house</b>—The house belonged to her, and she appears throughout to be the older sister.
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<p id="Lu10_39"><b>39. which also</b>—"who for her part," in contrast with Martha.
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<br><br><b>sat</b>—"seated herself." From the custom of sitting <i>beneath</i> an instructor, the phrase "sitting at one's feet" came to mean being a disciple of any one (<a onclick="return mV('Act',22,3);">Act 22:3</a>).
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<br><br><b>heard</b>—rather, "kept listening" to His word.
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<p id="Lu10_40"><b>40. cumbered</b>—"distracted."
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<br><br><b>came to him</b>—"presented herself before Him," as from another apartment, in which her sister had "<i>left</i> her to serve (or make preparation) <i>alone.</i>"
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<br><br><b>carest thou not...my sister,</b> etc.—"Lord, here am I with everything to do, and this sister of mine will not lay a hand to anything; thus I miss something from Thy lips, and Thou from our hands."
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<br><br><b>bid her,</b> etc.—She presumes not to stop Christ's teaching by calling her sister away, and thus leaving Him without His one auditor, nor did she hope perhaps to succeed if she had tried.
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<p id="Lu10_41"><b>41. Martha, Martha</b>—emphatically redoubling upon the name.
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<br><br><b>careful and cumbered</b>—the one word expressing the inward <i>worrying anxiety</i> that her preparations should be worthy of her Lord; the other, the outward <i>bustle</i> of those preparations.
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<br><br><b>many things</b>—"much service" (<a onclick="return mV('Luk',10,40);">Luk 10:40</a>); too elaborate preparation, which so engrossed her attention that she missed her Lord's teaching.
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<p id="Lu10_42"><b>42. one thing,</b> etc.—The idea of "Short work and little of it suffices for Me" is not so much the <i>lower sense</i> of these weighty words, as <i>supposed</i> in them, as the basis of something far loftier than any precept on economy. Underneath that idea is couched another, as to the littleness both of elaborate preparation for the present life and <i>of that life itself,</i> compared with another.
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<br><br><b>chosen the good part</b>—not in the general sense of Moses' choice (<a onclick="return mV('Hbr',11,25);">Hbr 11:25</a>), and Joshua's (<a onclick="return mV('Jos',24,15);">Jos 24:15</a>), and David's (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',119,30);">Psa 119:30</a>); that is, of good in opposition to <i>bad;</i> but, of two good ways of serving and pleasing the Lord, choosing <i>the better.</i> Wherein, then, was Mary's better than Martha's? Hear what follows.
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<br><br><b>not be taken away</b>—Martha's choice would be taken from her, for <i>her services would die with her;</i> Mary's <i>never,</i> being spiritual and eternal. Both were true-hearted disciples, but the one was absorbed in the higher, the other in the lower of two ways of honoring their common Lord. Yet neither despised, or would willingly neglect, the other's occupation. The one represents the <i>contemplative,</i> the other the <i>active</i> style of the Christian character. A Church full of Marys would perhaps be as great an evil as a Church full of Marthas. Both are needed, each to be the complement of the other.
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