Annotations Upon the New Testament, Luke · Chapter 13
CHAP. XIII.
Verse 1. THere were present at that season, some that told him of the Galileans, whose bloud Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices] Cyrill and Theophylact, with Euthymius think, that they were followers of that Judah of Galilee, of whom Gamaliel makes mention, Acts 5.37.Polyc. Lyser. Vide Calvinum. They relate these to be his absurd opinions, that he taught that no man is to be called Lord, that the Jews ought not to pay tribute to the Emperour of Rome, nor to offer sacrifice for the Romans, and for these things Pilate was angry with them, and commanded to kill them in sacrificing, yet these things are uncertaine. This is certain (since we may gather it out of Iosephus) that the Galileans were alwaies prone to sedition,Vult dicere seditiosos istos peccatores fuisse maximos qui graviter & Deum, & Magistratum offenderint. Ac proinde supplicium quod sustinuerunt, justum esse atque sufficienter ab ipsis promeritum. Verum enim verò vos qui hujus Crudelitatis vel spectatores fuistis, vel ad quorum aures fama ejus pervenit, non debetis inde occasionem sumere ipsorum infelicitati insultandi neque iam in ipsorum quam in propria peccata inquirendi. Polyc. Lyser. for they burned with an insatiable desire of getting liberty which they lost by the Romans, therefore it is probable that some of them conspired, and entred into a league to vindicate their liberty, and that things might succeed the more prosperously, they began with sacrifices, as it is usuall in making Covenants, where Pilate as a Governour in Rome comming upon them on the sudden with his Souldiers, cruelly slew those seditious persons, and so mingled and confounded their bloud and the beasts together. See 2 Kings 23.16.
Vers. 3. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish] Though not in the same kind, yet as severely, Indicat ipsos quoque ex inopinato crudeliter & malè interituros. Polyc. Lyser.
Vers. 4. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloe fell] That the Lord may the more move them, he addes also another example. There was neer Jerusalem a river or Fountaine called Siloa making a Fishpoole,Polyc. Lyser. as is manifest from the 9th. of Iohn 17. By it a tower was built serving for an aquaeduct through the City, as is manifest from Esay. 7.3. See 8.6. This tower fell, and slew eighteen men.
Think ye that they were sinners above all men] Beza and the Vulgar render it debitores debters, but the Syriack hath sinners which seemes more proper here.Debitores] hoc vocabulo in praesentia utitur, ut innuat omnes homines legi divinae debere obedientiam, & hanc si non praestent obligatos esse ad poenam. Polyc. Lys.
Vers. 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish] That which Christ here threatens to the impenitent was fulfilled after forty yeares; for then Titus the emperour of the Romanes on the feast of the Passeover besieged the City, and having taken it slew many impenitent Jewes as they were sacrificing.
Vers. 6. A certaine man had a figtree planted in his vineyard, &c. This vineyard notes the Church of God, Esay 2.1. Matth. 20.1. in which there is one vine our Lord Jesus Christ, in which all we ought to be ingrafted as branches if we will bring forth fruit to eternall life, Iohn 15 1
Vers. 7. Behold these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree and finde none] Some of the Fathers interpret it only of the Synagogue of the Jewes, and so the three yeares wherein Christ expected fruit were three times, 1. Before the Law. 2. In the Law. 3. after the Law, as Gregory. Or the three Lawes; the first naturall, the second written by Moses, the third Evangelicall by Christ, as Ambrose. Or the three governments of the Jewes; the first under the High-Priests, the second under Judges, the third under Kings; but Theophylact, Athanasius and Basil doe expound it more largely to signifie the three ages of men; Childhood, youth, and old-age, or else the three years which Christ spent in going through their whole Land, teaching and doing good, and healing all the world possessed with the Devill, Acts 10.38. Those which referre these things to the three yeares in which Christ taught seeme not to attend to what followes, of waiting one yeare,Grotius. neither did God being intreated by the godly defer the punishment of the Jews for one,Vide Maldonatum. but fourty yeares after the three yeares that Christ taught them. Wherefore it is better to understand the three years thus, that figs which are fruitfull doe not longer stay from bearing.Alludit ad naturam ficus, quae aliquando tertio demum anno à plantatione sua fert fructus. Sed si tertio anno nondum proferat, nunquam eos proferre solet. Cornel. à Lap.
Vers. 11. A Spirit of infirmity eighteen years] The disease had so prevailed over her that she was crazed by habit.Hoc est, laborabat illa foemina morbo non naturali, sed qui ex Diaboli malitia & potentia, vel per incantationem, vel per fascinum aliquod ipsi obvenerat. Polyc. Lys.
Vers. 13. And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight] He could heal her by his bare word, without touching, but he doth not only vouchsafe to touch her, to shew the certainty of his Charity and good will; but also that he might signifie, that his quickning flesh is that ordinary instrument by which he maketh us partakers of his saving grace.
Vers. 14. Said unto the People, &c.] He strikes at Christ as a violater of the Sabbath through the sides of the people, because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day] Not by applying of medicines, as the Latine curare, and the Greek foreign properly signifieth. See 4 Matt. 23.
Vers. 16. Ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound to these eigteene yeares, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day] This argument is amplified by a three-fold comparison. First He compares the Cattle together, the Oxe and the Asse, and this woman which he calls a daughter of Abraham, being not content to oppose a reasonable Creature to a beast which was enough, he addes a daughter of Abraham, which name was in great esteeme with them. See Matth. 3.9. Luke 3.8. John 8.33. Act. 13.26. Secondly, he compares the bond whereby the Cattle are tyed at the stall, and the bonds of the Devill; and Thirdly the time. The Cattle peradventure for one night or a few dayes are tyed to the stall, but this woman even for the length of time is worthy all commiseration.
19. and 21. Verses. By two Parables, one taken from the garden, viz. from a grain of mustard-seed; another from domesticall matters, viz. Leaven; He teacheth, that that is the nature of Evangelicall doctrine, that it growes besides the expectation of all men, and spreads it self farre.
Vers. 23. Are there few that be saved] Christ is wont to reject curious questions without an answer, as here, and Acts 1.7.Grotius. Respondit Christus affirmativè paucos salvari, ut insinuat Lucas, & clarè exprimit Matth. c. 7. ver. 14. Idem asserit Isaias, Cap. 10.22. & c. 24.13. Cornel. à Lap. It belongs to us to know what they are that are saved, not how many are to be saved, although by one we may somewhat guesse at the other, for few are willing to enter into a hard and difficult way.
Strive with all your strength to enter through. Greeke. Contendite, enitimini, conamini, adlaborate omnibus viribus. Hoc enim verbo significat opus esse labore & conatu, quia non sine magna & ardua difficultate queat quis angustam portam transmittere. Luc. Brugens.Vers. 24. Strive to enter in at the straight gate] That is, therefore strive to enter, because the gate is straight. Bradford well compared the way of Religion to a narrow bridge, and a large and deep river, from which the least turning away is dangerous.
Vers. 28. All the Prophets in the Kingdome of God] Therefore also Salomon.
Vers. 30. There are last which shall be first] The Gentiles which God in times past suffered to goe after their own wayes. Acts 14.15.
First shall be last] The Jewes politically and spiritually, for they are the most miserable of all people.
Vers. 32. Tell that Fox] The Prophets use to set forth Kings (saith Grotius) by the names of beasts, as the Goat, Ram, Leopard, Beare; neither undeservedly, because the greatest part of them have beastly conditions.Crotius. So Paul describes Nero by the name of a Lion; Herod being very subtill is fitly tearmed a Fox.
I cast out Devills, and doe cures to day and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected] Which words signifie both the nearnesse of his passion, and the certainty of the thing,Polyc. Lyser. and the propension of his mind to so great a worke.
Vers. 34. Which killest the Prophets] Jeremy, Zacharie.
As a hen doth gather her brood under her wings] There is in all birds a wonderfull love ingrafted to cherish and protect their little ones, but especially in the hen. This cherisheth the young ones without feathers, provides them food, by clocking calls them to her, and contends for them against the Kite, even to bloud; the Jewes were so cherished and protected by God.
And ye would not] Christ speaks not here of his hidden and absolute will, according to which he doth whatsoever he will, neither can any creature resist him, but of his revealed will to which men ought to apply themselves.
Vers. 35. Behold your house is left unto you desolate] First the Temple, which is elsewhere called the house of the Lord; because the Jewes made it of a house of prayer a den of theeves, He calls it no more the house of the Lord, but their house. Desolate] Spoyled of all its grace; yet the word house may be taken more generally for the houses of all those of Jerusalem, yea even of the Jewes in that whole Countrey, as it is Psal. 69.26. Yet Christ prophesieth here of the destruction of all Judaea, which came by the Romanes under Vespasian and Titus.