Annotations Upon the New Testament, Luke · Chapter 7
CHAP. VII.
Vers. 5. FOR he loveth our nation] It is no doubt but the Jews commend him for his piety, neither could the love of the Nation every where hated, elsewhere proceed, which he evidently witnessed that he favoured the Doctrine of the Law by the study of the Law and the worship of God, building them a Synagogue; It is wonderfull stupour in the meane while,Calvin. that by their suffrage they acknowledge a Gentile to receive the grace of God, which they contemptuously refused.
A Synagogue] The Synagogue was 1. For instruction, there, as in a Schoole, they were instructed in Gods Law.foreign propriè congregationem significat: hic autem locum ubi congregatio fiebat. Piscat.
Mr Coleman on Ier. 8.20.2. Petition, there was an Oratory, whether at times they went to pray.
3. Correction, there were offenders punished, as severall passages in the Gospell shew.
Vers. 12. The gate of the City] For the Jews had their Sepulchres out of the City, as we may see,Grotius. Hinc collige Iudaeos sepulchra sua habuisse non in urbe, sed extra urbem, ideoque tum ob nitorem, tum ob sanitaetem, ne cadavera suo foetore & putredine aerem inficerent. Cornel. à Lapide. Mat. 27.59. and other people also, whence he is said to be carried out. And so the cause of publike health requires, which is much impaired by the evill aire of graves. The more may we wonder why Christians should have their sacred meetings in those places in which those carkasses are, which was first brought in for the memory of the Martyrs, but not so well continued.
Vers. 13. And when the Lord saw her, he had Compassion on her, and said unto her, weepe not] He really shewed the efficacy of comfort, restoring the raised Son to his mother. He useth two instruments,Chemnit. as it were, in the raising up of this dead person, for he touched the Biere, and spake to the dead; 1. That he might shew that the destruction of death, and restitution of life, is the power and work of his person, not in the divine nature only, but in that also which he assuming from us, enriched with the fulness of the divinity. 2. That he might teach, that the meane, or instrument, by which those benefits of Christ are communicated to us,Loculum taugendo fortè ostendere voluit sibi minimè horrori fore mortem & sepulchrum quo nobis vitam acquireret. Calvin. are his word, by which he will destroy death, and restore life in us. This is the first raising of the dead made by Christ in the New Testament.
Vers. 14. Young man, I say unto thee, arise, or be raised from the dead] Jesus (when those that carryed the young man stood still) cried to the dead man, not in words of praying, (as Elijah and Elisha did) but in the word of commanding. For so is the word foreign,Chemnit. used of the dead, Mat. 11.5. and 14.2. and 16.21.
Vers. 16. And there came a feare on all] The common people amongst them which beleeved not in Christ could not so lightly neglect or calumniate this miracle as the rest for the unusuall greatnesse of it, for in nine hundred yeares almost after Elisha we read of no such thing to have happened in Israel.
And they glorified God] Because they declared that this miracle was a testimony and warning that God either sent some famous Prophet, or the Messias himself.
A great Prophet is risen up] All those which were sent by God were called Prophets. They call him a great Prophet,Grotius. because he restored the dead to life, not by prayers, nor by the spreading of his body upon him, but by a bare command, without all example.
Vers. 22. To the poore the Gospell is preached] Some translations (as the Geneva) have it,Vulg Lat. pauperes Evangelizantur. The poore receive the Gospell: Which is more proper. The poore are Evangelized or Gospellized, so is the Greeke, as we say, one is Frenchified, or Italianated, when his Garbe and carriage are such as if he were a naturall Frenchman, or Italian, so their speeches or Iudgements, actions and affections are transformed into the Gospell.
Christ speakes this in a twofold reference: 1. To the freeness of his love, he hath no respect of persons. 2. In reference to the effect, the poore receive the Gospell, have received a tincture or impression of the Gospell, are transformed into it.
Poore) These words are absolutely true of the spiritually poore or humble: 1. Because he was made so by the Gospell. 2. Was bred by it, therefore is nourished by it; yet 2ly. they are intended by Christ of the outwardly poore, because he bids them tell what they had heard and seene, they could not see the spiritually poore. 2ly. All the rest of the things which they were to tell Iohn of were temporall, bodily blindnesse, lamenesse, death, therefore this. 3. Christ speakes of miracles, for a gracious man to receive the Gospell is no miracle. 4. This exposition agrees with other places, Ioh. 6.26. and 7.98.
3ly. This is not true of them universally, nor exclusively, not all the outwardly poore, nor only they, receive the Gospell; but fourthly probably and for the most part the poore rather than the rich embrace it, and more eminently receive it; 1. Into their understandings to know it. 2. Into their judgements to allow of it as true. 3. Into their wills to consent unto the goodnesse of it. 4. To obey the truth of it in their lives.
Vers. 25. Are in kings courts] In Kings Palaces. Piscat.Vno verbo in regiis. Ovid. 2. Meram. Regia solis erat sublimibus alta Columnis, veruntamen periphrasis illa magnificentius sonat. Piscat.
Vers. 28. He that is least in the Kingdome of God is greater than he] That is, the least Doctor in the time of the New Testament (who is in no wise to be compared with Iohn for the gifts of the Spirit) in which the Gospel concerning the kingdome of heaven is preached, is more excellent than Iohn in respect of the kind of his doctrine.Scultet. de precatione.
Vers. 30. The Counsell of God against themselves] foreign, in or against themselves, the words will bear either: In themselves, because they knew it,foreign Graecis ut & consilium Latinis significare potest aut id quod secum quis constituit facere, aut quod faciendum Censet. Potest utravis significatio hic locum habere. Grotius. Vide plura ibid. and tooke it into consideration, and yet rejected it: and against themselves, because it was their destruction.
Vers. 33. But Iohn the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine] That is, he observed not a vulgar, but an extraordinary, peculiar and austere kind of life,Chemnit. he drank only water, and did eat locusts and wild honey.
Vers. 34. The Son of man is come eating and drinking] That is, Christ in his externall and common life affected nothing singular or extraordinary, but applyed himself to the vulgar and usuall custome.
Vers. 35. Wisdome is justified] That is, acknowledged and declared to be just.
Vers. 37. A sinner] A notorious sinner. Whereas divers others addressed themselves to Christ for corporall mercies, this only commeth for spirituall, even for remission of her sinnes. There are three great things observable in this historie. 1. Great sinnes.Mr. Burgesse of Justification. 2. Great repentance and humiliation. 3. Great love and grace of God through Christ in pardoning sinne.
Brought an alabaster box of oyntment] It was a Custome to anoynt guests at feasts,This was a present for a Prince, an alabaster box of Nard Pistick was sent as a present from Cambyses to the King of Ethiopia. Dr. Tailor of the life and death of Christ, the third part. in token of welcome. See 26. Matth. 7.
Vers. 44. Thou gavest me no water for my feet] It was a custome amongst them to give water to their guests comming far for their feet, as is manifest from Gen. 18.4. and 19.2. and 43.24. and Iudg. 19.21. 1 King. 25.41. Thess. 5.10. They did it either that they might wash their feet which they had fullied in the way, or because of their wearinesse, for cold water refresheth a wearied person.Non solum Iudaeorum & omnium Orientalium, sed & Graecorum mos fuit, discubituris lavare pedes, in Conviviis cumprimis splendidis. Quistor pius. Simon seemes not to have neglected this Custome, because Christ came not farre, but was only invited to feast with him, unlesse it can be proved that water was wont to be given to such as were invited to a feast. Drusius in praeterit.
Christ came from Ierusalem to Bethany, Grotius.for he spent the dayes with teaching at Ierusalem, and in the evenings for the most part came to Bethany.
Vers. 47. For she loved much] Or, and therefore she loved much;Particula non causativa sed illativa vel rationalis. Vt Matth. 25.34. 1 John 3.14. Perkins on Jude. The Papists make this for causa praecedens, and not signum subse quens, as if her love were the cause of the forgivenesse of her sinnes. The word (for) doth not signifie here a Cause, but a reason drawn from the signe, as it is also used elsewhere, the sence then is, many sinnes are forgiven her, and hereby you shall know it, because, or in that she loved much. The particle (For) is used as a note of the effect, or signe, in our common speech, as there is fire, for I see smoake, this tree liveth, for it sprouteth. Mr. Pinke would have it run thus, therefore she hath loved much, for first the whole scope of the Parable is to shew,See Downam. Of Justification. l. 6. c. 12. page 404, 405. To gather hence merit of remission for o…r workes of Charity is against the ground of faith, by which we beleeve remission of sinnes, which is directly opposi…e to merit. Dr Taylor. foreign aliquando est conjunctio collectiva seu rationalis, & significat ideo vel propterea, ut hic, & 1 Sam. 2.25. Posselius in Syntaxi Conjunctionum p. 300. that he loves most to whom most is forgiven, and not contrarily that most is forgiven to him that loves most. 2. The antithesis in the same verse requires it, the words, but to whom little is forgiven he loveth little, suppose this thesis, because many sinnes are forgiven her she loveth much.