The Harmony Chronicle and Order of the New Testament, Part 1 · Section 60
SECTION LX. LUKE Ch. X. from Ver. 17. to the end of the Chapter. And Chap. XI, and XII, and XIII, to Ver. 17.
THe observing of the beginning and end of this Section, will cleer the subsequence of this to the preceding, and the order of all the stories comprehended in it. It begins with the seventy Disciples returning from the imployment upon which their Master had sent them. Now that they returned to him at Ierusalem whither he was gone to the Feast of Tabernacles, appears by this, that after they are come up to him, he is in Bethany in the house of Mary and Martha, Luk. 10.38, 39.
The Section ends with this relation, And he went through the Cities and villages teaching and journeying towards Ierusalem, Luk. 13.22. So that in Chap. 10.17. he is at Ierusalem, having come thither to the Feast of Tabernacles, And in Chap. 13.22. He hath been abroad and is now travelling up to Ierusalem again to the Feast of Dedication. Therefore this whole Section is the story of his actions from the one Feast to the other.
Chap. X. Upon the Disciples relating that the Devils were subject to them in his Name, he answers, I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightening. Which referreth partly to his death shortly to be, by which Satan was overthrown, and partly [if Heaven mean the Church of the Iews, and the state of Religion there as it means not seldome] to the power of the Gospel this very year and forward, among them, casting him out. With these words of Christ, and the consideration of the time they refer to, we may fitly compare severall places which give and receive light mutually with it: As Matth. 12.45. where Satan cast out of this nation returns again, 1 Cor. 6.3. Rev. 12.9. & Rev. 20.1, 2, &c.
Unto a Lawyer Christ defineth who is a Neighbour, by the Parable of the wounded man and the good Samaritan, vastly differing from the doctrine of the Pharisees in that case. Take these two or three assertions of their own Schools for some illustration of this Parable.
1. They accounted none under the terme Brother, but an Israelite by blood, and none under the terme Neighbour, but those that were come in to their Religion. Aruch in voce foreign. By using the word Neighbour are excluded all the Heathen. Maym. in Retseah per. 2. An Israelite that slayeth a stranger sojourning among them, is not to be put to death by the Sanhedrin for it, because it is said, If a man come presumptuously upon his Neighbour: By which it is apparent they accounted not such a one a Neighbour.
2. They have this bloody and desperate tenet: Hereticks, that is, Israelites that follow Idolatry, or such as commit provoking transgressions, as to eat a carcasse, or to wear linsey-woolsey for provocation, this is an Heretick. And Epicureans, which are such Israelites as deny the Law and Prophets, it is commanded that a man kill them if he have power in his hand to kill them; and he may boldly kill them with the sword: but if he cannot, he shall subtilly come about them till he can compasse their death. As if he see one of them fallen into a well, and there was a ladder in the well before, let him take it up and say, I must needs use it to fetch my sonne from the top of the house, and then I will bring it thee again. But Heathens betwixt whom and us there is not warre, as also the feeders of small cattell of Israel, and such like, we may not compasse their death; but it is forbidden to deliver them, if they be in danger of death. [Observe this] As if one see one of them fall into the Sea, he shall not fetch him up, for it is said, Thou shalt not stand up against the blood of thy Neighbour. But such a one is not thy Neighbour.
3. Of all other people of the world they abhorred Samaritans, as appeareth by Ioh. 4.9 & 8.43. and by exceeding many expressions to that purpose in their own writings: and therefore our Saviour urging for cleer and free charity in this Parable, exemplifieth in a Samaritan the unlikeliest man in the world to do any charitable office for a Jew: and he a neighbour, though so remo…e in blood, religion and converse.
Christ is at Bethany, ver. 30. in the house of Mary and Martha. Martha was an usuall womans name in the nation Ioshua the sonne of Gamla married Martha the daughter of Baithus, Iuchas. fol. 57. Abba the sonne of Martha. Id. fol. 72. and Aruch in foreign. Isaac bar Shemuel, bar Martha. Jerus. in Shab. fol. 3. col. 4, &c. And now let the Reader cast his eye back from hence, and calculate, when or how it was, that Christ came so acquainted with this family, and he will finde no time or occasion so likely, as when the woman-sinner washed his feet, Luk. 7. which we proved there was Mary, the sister of Lazarus, who was also called Magdalen.
Chap. XI. ver. 2. The Lords prayer rehearsed: Christ had taught it, almost a year and a half ago, in his Sermon in the mount, and now being desired to teach them to pray, he gives the same again. They that deny this for a form of prayer to be used, either know not, or consider not, what kind of prayers the eminent men among the Jews taught them: Iohn had taught his to pray, after the same manner and use of the nation; and Christ being desired to teach his Disciples as Iohn had taught his, rehearseth this form which he had given before. They that again deny this Prayer is to be used by any but reall Saints, because, as they say, none but such can call God Our father; either know not or consider not, how usuall this compellation was among the nation in their devotions, and Christ speaketh constantly according to the common and most usuall language of the country.
At ver. 14. and forward, there is a story of casting out a Devil, so like that in Sect. 35. the Jews cavill, and our Saviours words about it are the very same: and yet the current of the history evinceth them for two severall stories: for as the Jews alwayes carried the same malicious construction of his miracles, so doth he justly alwayes return them the same answer, as hath been observed already.
At ver. 27. there is a link that chains the time and stories, As he spake these things: and another at ver. 29. if compared with ver. 16. and again at ver. 37. where his denouncing wo against the Pharisees, although it be much the same for sense with that in Matth. 23. yet that they were uttered at two severall times and upon two severall occasions, will appear by that time that we come to that Chapter.
In Chap. XII. He rehearseth many things that he had spoken before: the same doctrine being needfull to be inculcated over and over, though to the same audience: much more when new auditors were still coming in. Therefore Christ towards his latter end, did like Moses, making his Deuteronomium rehearse the doctrine that he had taught before.
Chap. XIII. The first verse beareth this link of connexion, and continuance of story; There were present at that season, &c. Pilates bloody act in mingling some Galileans blood with their sacrifices, cannot be looked for so properly in any place, as at the Temple. Iosephus his story in Antiq. lib. 18. cap. 5. is farre from it. Siloam was in the middest of the City, Ierus. in Chagigah▪ fol. 76. col. 1. a place of great concourse, where the fall of the Tower slew eigteen men.