Luke 11:29

Christ's discourse in these verses shows two things: -

I. What is the sign we may expect from God for the confirmation of our faith. The great and most convincing proof of Christ's being sent of God, and which they were yet to wait for, after the many signs that had been given them, was the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Here is,

1. A reproof to the people for demanding other signs than what had already been given them in great plenty: The people were gathered thickly together (Luk 11:29), a vast crowd of them, expecting not so much to have their consciences informed by the doctrine of Christ as to have their curiosity gratified by his miracles. Christ knew what brought such a multitude together; they came seeking a sign, they came to gaze, to have something to talk of when they went home; and it is an evil generation which nothing will awaken and convince, no, not the most sensible demonstrations of divine power and goodness.

2. A promise that yet there should be one sign more given them, different from any that had yet been given them, even the sign of Jonas the prophet, which in Matthew is explained as meaning the resurrection of Christ. As Jonas being cast into the sea, and lying there three days, and then coming up alive and preaching repentance to the Ninevites, was a sign to them, upon which they turned from their evil way, so shall the death and resurrection of Christ, and the preaching of his gospel immediately after to the Gentile world, be the last warning to the Jewish nation. If they be provoked to a holy jealousy by this, well and good; but, if this do not work upon them, let them look for nothing but utter ruin: The Son of Man shall be a sign to this generation (Luk 11:30), a sign speaking to them, though a sign spoken against by them.

3. A warning to them to improve this sign; for it was at their peril if they did not. (1.) The queen of Sheba would rise up in judgment against them, and condemn their unbelief, Luk 11:31. She was a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, and yet so readily gave credit to the report she heard of the glories of a king of Israel, that, notwithstanding the prejudices we are apt to conceive against foreigners, she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear his wisdom, not only to satisfy her curiosity, but to inform her mind, especially in the knowledge of the true God and his worship, which is upon record, to her honour; and, behold, a greater than Solomon in here, pleion Solomōntos - more than a Solomon is here; that is, says Dr. Hammond, more of wisdom and more heavenly divine doctrine than ever was in all Solomon's words or writings; and yet these wretched Jews will give no manner of regard to what Christ says to them, though he be in the midst of them. (2.) The Ninevites would rise up in judgment against them, and condemn their impenitency (Luk 11:32): They repented at the preaching of Jonas; but here is preaching which far exceeds that of Jonas, is more powerful and awakening, and threatens a much sorer ruin than that of Nineveh, and yet none are startled by it, to turn from their evil way, as the Ninevites did.

II. What is the sign that God expects from us for the evidencing of our faith, and that is the serious practice of that religion which we profess to believe, and a readiness to entertain all divine truths, when brought to us in their proper evidence. Now observe,

1. They had the light with all the advantage they could desire. For God, having lighted the candle of the gospel, did not put it in a secret place, or under a bushel; Christ did not preach in corners. The apostles were ordered to preach the gospel to every creature; and both Christ and his ministers, Wisdom and her maidens, cry in the chief places of concourse, Luk 11:33. It is a great privilege that the light of the gospel is put on a candlestick, so that all that come in may see it, and may see by it where they are and whither they are going, and what is the true, and sure, and only way to happiness.

2. Having the light, their concern was to have the sight, or else to what purpose had they the light? Be the object ever so clear, if the organ be not right, we are never the better: The light of the body is the eye (Luk 11:34), which receives the light of the candle when it is brought into the room. So the light of the soul is the understanding and judgment, and its power of discerning between good and evil, truth and falsehood. Now, according as this is, so the light of divine revelation is to us, and our benefit by it; it is a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. (1.) If this eye of the soul be single, if it see clear, see things as they are, and judge impartially concerning them, if it aim at truth only, and seek it for its own sake, and have not any sinister by - looks and intentions, the whole body, that is, the whole soul, is full of light, it receives and entertains the gospel, which will bring along with it into the soul both knowledge and joy. This denotes the same thing with that of the good ground, receiving the word and understanding it. If our understanding admits the gospel in its full light, it fills the soul, and it has enough to fill it. And if the soul be thus filled with the light of the gospel, having no part dark, - if all its powers and faculties be subjected to the government and influence of the gospel, and none left unsanctified, - then the whole soul shall be full of light, full of holiness and comfort. It was darkness itself, but now light in the Lord, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light, Luk 11:36. Note, The gospel will come into those souls whose doors and windows are thrown open to receive it; and where it comes it will bring light with it. But, (2.) If the eye of the soul be evil, - if the judgment be bribed and biassed by the corrupt and vicious dispositions of the mind, by pride and envy, by the love of the world and sensual pleasures, - if the understanding be prejudiced against divine truths, and resolved not to admit them, though brought with ever so convincing an evidence, - it is no wonder that the whole body, the whole soul, should be full of darkness, Luk 11:34. How can they have instruction, information, direction, or comfort, from the gospel, that wilfully shut their eyes against it? and what hope is there of such? what remedy for them? The inference hence therefore is, Take heed that the light which is in thee be not darkness, Luk 11:35. Take heed that the eye of the mind be not blinded by partiality, and prejudice, and sinful aims. Be sincere in your enquiries after truth, and ready to receive it in the light, and love, and power of it; and not as the men of this generation to whom Christ preached, who never sincerely desired to know God's will, nor designed to do it, and therefore no wonder that they walked on in darkness, wandered endlessly, and perished eternally.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk_11:29-30

The sign, of Jonas the prophet--

The sign of the prophet Jonas

There is a peculiarity here which you ought carefully to consider.

A sign was asked by an evil generation, that if Jesus were truly the Christ, they might receive Him as their King, and give Him their allegiance; but the sign which is proffered, even the sign of the Resurrection, presupposed the perpetration of that crime, the prevention of which was the great object for which the sign was solicited. A sign, in short, is asked, which would prevent the rejection of Christ; a sign is proposed which would be no sign at all until He bad been rejected. The Jews must crucify the Christ in order to their obtaining the sign; whereas, they wanted the sign in order that they might be withheld from the crucifixion. Let us look into this matter. If, after all, an additional sign were to be given, why was such a sign selected as could have no existence until the crime had been perpetrated which it was the object of a sign to prevent? To this we reply, that it was not our Lords object to prevent the Jews from crucifying Him; but it was His object to leave them inexcusable in so doing; and therefore did He ply them with miracles which were fitted to convince all who had understanding, and with discourses which were adapted to move all who had hearts. He gave proof enough of the justice of His pretensions, for it was proof which prevailed to the bringing many to His side; but when asked to carry proof to that extreme point where it becomes absolutely irresistible, to crowd the landscape or the firmament with signs which should leave the beholders no option, but compel them to receive Him as Messiah, why, He was then solicited to a course not only inconsistent with the free agency of man, but counter to the work which had brought Him down as a sojourner to earth. And why marvel that Christ should have withheld that additional evidence which was not necessary to make His countrymen inexcusable, and which would directly have interfered with the completion of the scheme of redemption? Yes, you may say, but the question is not why Christ should have refused all additional signs; the answer to this is comparatively easy; but why, in consenting to give another sign, He should have selected just that one, the sign of a resurrection, which must necessarily have been ineffectual in withholding the Jews from the greatest of crimes, and which could not exist unless and until they had committed that crime? Does it not almost seem a mockery of the Pharisees, that when they asked a sign which might enable them to receive Jesus as the Christ, they were denied all but one, which they could only obtain by rejecting Him as the Christ. Remember, however, that sufficient evidence had been already vouchsafed; so that the Pharisees would have had no ground of complaint had the demand for further signs been met by unqualified refusal. And you are, moreover, probably quite wrong in speaking of the sign of the Resurrection as though it must necessarily have been too late to have been of service to the Jews, because undoubtedly too late to prevent His crucifixion. The crucifying Jesus did not fill up the measure of the guilt of the Jews; they did not touch the unpardonable sin, for they did not withstand the whole amount of evidence until they had refused to be convinced by the resurrection of Jesus and the miracles which evidenced the diffusion of the Spirit. It was indeed such a crime as had never been committed on the darkened stage of this fallen creation, that of putting to death as a malefactor the Being who went about doing good, and in whose actions there was the power as well as the loving-kindness of God. Yet--and there is no fact more glorious in the whole range of theology--yet the blood of the crucified made atonement for the crucifiers. Men had not sinned beyond the reach of mercy when they uttered the cry, Away with Him, away with Him; they had not blocked up against themselves the escape-path for eternity, when they buffeted the Mediator, and circled His forehead with thorns, and nailed Him to the cross, and reviled Him in His agonies. We will not indeed say that the Jews occupied so advantageous a moral position after as before they had crucified their King. They had resisted a vast body of evidence, and had therefore grown stronger in infidelity; they had perpetrated a most atrocious crime, and their consciences must have been scared in the perpetration; but if they had rendered themselves less accessible to the demonstrations of evidence, less susceptible of the remonstrances of righteousness, they had not rendered themselves one jot less the objects of the Mediators regards, nor thrown themselves beyond the reach of His extraordinary sacrifice. The blood upon their hands, whilst it cried for vengeance on them as murderers, cried also--and oh I the voice which spake of pardon was far louder and deeper than that which spake of wrath--cried for mercy on them as the objects of redemption. And if that eviland adulterous generation, moved by the sign of the Resurrection, overcome by that most stupendous of all miracles, the breaking forth in His own might of the Crucified One from the sepulchre--if they had discerned and acknowledged and bewailed their iniquity, and flocking round the despised Nazarene had offered Him with tears their allegiance, and besought of Him pardon, and bowed before Him as a prince and a Saviour, who questions that this generation, eminent in guilt, foremost in all that can make human nature infamous, would have gathered to itself the smiles and the succours of God, and that Jesus would have stood, the upholder of those who had scorned Him, and a life-giver to those who had slain Him? Call ye the sign of Jonas a sign which came too late, when the blood had just been shed which blotted out the sin of the world? Call ye it too late, when apostles were proclaiming to their unbelieving countrymen, Unto you first, God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you! Too late, when the publication of the gospel and the resurrection is to begin at Jerusalem, and the very men who with wicked hands had crucified and slain the Prince of Life are to be entreated to look in faith to a Saviour waiting to embrace them, ere the tidings of deliverance may be carried to the cities and the islands of the heathen? Oh 1 no: all the aspect of strangeness disappears from our text; in place of manifesting harshness, in place of giving a compliance of less worth than a refusal, Christ displayed wondrously the graciousness of His character, and showed a still mighty desire to win the Jews from infidelity, when in answer to a demand to show more signs to an evil generation He said, There shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas. You ask us to show that the sign of the Resurrection was in itself sufficient to work conviction in all fair inquirers, and we give you our reply by going back over the waste of long ages, and leading you to Nineveh, that exceeding great city, with its vast but impious population. We bid you mark how on a sudden the sounds of revelry are hushed, how all the business and all the pleasures of the stirring and luxurious metropolis come as in a moment to a stand, and how the great and the mean, the king in his palace and the nobles in their halls, and the poor in their hovels, as though shrinking from a wrath which rushed visibly on, bow themselves to the earth, and cry mightily for deliverance. And why is this? Hath God indeed come forth from the solitudes of eternity, and, riding the firmament in the chariot of His vengeance, hath He made bare His arm in the view of the Ninevites? Have angelic beings, withering the eyesight of those who dared gaze on their forms of fire, come down with the proclamation, that yet forty days and the proud city shall be a ruin? Nay, a foreigner with no attendants, a poor and unprotected stranger, a wanderer without a home and without a friend in the magnificent capital, this is the being at whose bidding the tide of a nations wickedness has been stayed in its flowings. This is the being whose voice, syllabling calamity, has put an arrest on the occupations and the joyousness of hundreds of thousands. Then this foreigner, this stranger, this wanderer, must have given striking evidence that he spake in Gods name: and you will allow, that if in any other case the like evidence be afforded, the effect wrought on the Ninevites clearly shows that it ought to prove convincing. But this evidence was the evidence of a resurrection. This prophet of disaster had been sepulchred three days and three nights in the depths of the waters, and then rose up uninjured from that strangest of tombs. This fact it is that the Ninevites knew; on this fact it was that they received Jonas as a prophet. The evidence, then, of the resurrection was sufficient, under the most unpromising circumstances, when it stood absolutely alone, and the parties to be convinced were the idolatrous and the profligate. It follows, therefore, that enough evidence is afforded, whenever the evidence of a resurrection is afforded. When assured that a particular evidence has overcome the infidelity of one people, I can be morally certain that it is not owing to deficiency of proof that the like evidence failed to overcome the infidelity of another people. There is a voice, then, in the history of Nineveh, which proclaims the Jews inexcusable in their unbelief. The voice of weeping and of wailing which issues from every house in that terrified capital is witness against the wickedness of the haughty Jerusalem. A nation clothed in sackcloth, and prostrating itself in spirit, and all because moved by the sign of a resurrection, this is our proof that the sign of a resurrection is powerful enough to test the pretensions of a prophet; and when, therefore, another nation resists the sign which has thus shown its strength, continuing in unbelief, though the messenger who declares himself authorized by God hath burst the bands of death and mastered the grave, we can be persuaded of this nation that its infidelity is not to be overcome by any evidence which consists with human accountability, and we are convinced that Christ did all that could be done for an evil and adulterous generation, when He promised them as the last in the long series of proofs the sign of Jonas the prophet; for as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man be to this generation. Well, then, might the Redeemer, when He had referred the scribes and the Pharisees to the sign of His resurrection--well might He conjure up the scenery of the last judgment, and represent the Ninevites as convicting the Jews and justifying their condemnation. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonas! and, behold, more than Jonas for this is the true rendering, not a greater than Jonas--behold, more than Jonas is here. The evidence granted to the Jews in the resurrection of Christ, in the preaching of the apostles and the gift of the Spirit, exceeded any that may be supposed to have been granted to the Ninevites in the preservation of Jonah. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

A word with those who wait for signs and wonders

Reading the Old Testament, we observe that the Lord in the olden time condescendingly gave signs to His servants, when He saw that it would be for their good. Doubtless if again there should come a necessity for signs to any of Gods servants, such tokens would be given them. If there should ever be a time when it was not possible for Christians to walk by faith alone, or when it would be more to the honour of God that their confidence should be somewhat assisted by marvels and tokens, then would God go out of the ordinary way once again and His people should receive miraculous seals. In no case is such a thing at all necessary under the gospel dispensation, which is so enriched with plainest evidence, that to add more would be to hold a candle to the sun, or pour water into the ocean. In addition to this first remark, let us add that signs have been given, and yet have not wrought faith in those who have seen them; and there is no necessary connection between seeing signs and believing that which the signs attest.

I. I shall ask your attention while I DESCRIBE THE PERSONS who are an evil generation that seek after a sign. We have among us many individuals who are aware that they are sinners, and are conscious of their guiltiness to such an extent as to be very uneasy as to their condition. They clearly perceive that sin will be punished by the Great Judge, and they are much afraid of the wrath to come. They anxiously desire, moreover, to find salvation; and, having long listened to the gospel, they are not ignorant of the way in which salvation is obtained; they understand the gospel in the letter of it to the highest degree. They are not unbelievers in any of the doctrines of the gospel; but illogical as their state is, they still remain unbelievers, with all this belief about them, and justify their remaining in unbelief by telling you that if they felt this, or if they saw that, or if this happened, or if the other thing occurred, then they would believe in Jesus, but not until then. They make different demands. There are some, and these are generally the most uneducated, who expect to experience remarkable dreams or to behold singular visions. Others we have met with, who suppose that in order to being saved they must feel some very peculiar physical sensation. Now you must not look for this. You must not put physical contortions or sensations as a test before the Lord, and say you will not believe in Him otherwise. These I hope are rare cases, but in very frequent instances I have met with people who will not believe in Jesus Christ to the salvation of their souls because they have not felt wretched enough. They have read in certain books of holy men who, when they were seeking a Saviour, were broken in pieces under the ponderous hammer of the law. They turn to such biographies, and they find the subjects of them uttering language similar to the book of Job, or to the words of Jeremy in the Lamentations. Ah! poor demented one, to desire misery, and to make your own wretchedness, and even your own unbelieving and wicked thoughts of God to be a kind of preparation for faith in Jesus Christ! It is a most insanely wicked thing, and yet many, many, many persist in unbelief because they think they are not wretched enough. Running to the other extreme, I have met with others who would not simply trust Christ because they were not happy enough. They have heard of the Christians joys, and the peace, like a river, that evermore abideth, and they have said, If I could get this peace, if this deep calm ruled in my spirit, then I could believe. As much as to say, If I saw the wheat full grown in the fields of my soul, then I would begin to sow, whereas the sowing must precede the reaping. I have met with some who would not believe in Christ because they could not pray eloquently. Oh, they have said, if I could pray like So-and-So, to whom we have listened with the greatest pleasure at the prayer-meeting, then I could put my trust in Christ, and there would be some hope for me! I have known others who must feel precisely like certain eminent saints have felt many years after their conversion, or else they cannot believe that they are saved. They will reach down the life of some holy man who had mastered his passions by long years of mortification, who had come to live near to God, and whose life was the heavenly life on earth, and they will mentally vow, I must be just like this man, say they, or else I cannot believe in Jesus. They say, in fact, to the Heavenly Physician, I am sick and ready to die, but, Good Physician, Thou must make me as strong as Samson at once and on the spot, or else I will not receive Thy medicine, just as if the perfect spiritual cure of the soul were not a lifelong work of grace.

II. I shall now, secondly, SHOW THE FOLLY OF SUCH CONDUCT. YOU are seeking a sign, one of these which I have described, or some other.

1. You seek what is quite unnecessary. What do you want a sign for? You want, you say, a token of Gods love. What token of Gods love to you can ever be wanted, now that He has given His only-begotten Son, first to live on earth, and then to die in pains extreme, the just for the unjust, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life! I blush for you, that you should ask any token of Gods love while Jesus Christ is before you, for herein is such love as nothing else can ever equal. What do you want a sign for? Why, to show, you say, that there is mercy for you. How do you need that? The very fact that you are alive shows how merciful God is!

2. You are also asking for useless signs. What evidence could there be now,, for instance, in mere dejection of spirit? You want to feel miserable you say: what evidence would that be of your salvation? It seems to me that you are like a man who would say that he would catch hold of a rope if he could sink so many fathoms deeper in the ocean, or that he would avail himself of a dispensary if his disease were so much worse. How strange that a rational man should talk thus! Despair is no help to faith. Sinful doubts cannot assist you to Christ; they may most effectually keep you from Him are you not also seeking most unreasonable things? To ask a sign from God when He pledges His word seems to me to be out of all reason. You are a beggar, remember, and we have an old proverb that beggars must not be choosers; above all, how dare a beggar demand a sign before he receive an alms?

III. I shall now want a few minutes more, and your very serious attention, while I now LAY BARE YOUR SINS, your grievous sins.

1. My dear hearers, in the first place, you make God a liar. Is not this the testimony of the Holy Ghost, He that believeth not hath made God a liar?

2. In the next place, you insult Gods sovereignty. He has a right to give signs or not, as He wills; but you do, as it were, say, Thou shalt give me a sign or else I will be damned. I will not have Thy mercy if I cannot have it in my own way: great God, I will not be saved unless I can feel as I want to feel. O fling away this accursed pride of yours, and kiss His silver sceptre, and say, Lord, save me as Thou wilt. I believe, help Thou my unbelief.

3. I must tell you what is more, you are acting the part of an idolater. What does an idolater do? He says, I cannot believe in an unseen God; I must have a golden calf or an image, that I can see with my eyes and touch with my hand. You say just the same. You cannot believe Gods naked word, you demand something you can feel, something you can see. Sheer idolatry.

4. Do you not see, moreover, that you crucify the Saviour? Those who nailed His hands to the tree were not greater sinners, even if they were so great, as you are who say to Him, Bleeding Saviour, I believe that Thou hast died on the cross; I believe that Thy blood could cleanse sin, but I cannot trust Thee to do it; I have no confidence in Thee; I cannot, will not trust Thee. I trust my husband, but I cannot trust my Saviour; I trust my child, but I cannot trust my God; I trust my minister, but I cannot trust the Son of God exalted in the highest heavens. Why, this is crucifying Him--this is treating Him as a dog only should be treated.

IV. YOUR DANGER In danger of death: you admit that, and now suppose you die in the state you are in. Why, you are almost saved; you are awakened, you are aroused, you have many good desires, but a man who is only almost saved will be altogether damned. There was a householder who almost bolted his door at night, but the thief came in; a prisoner was condemned to be hanged, and was almost pardoned, but he hung on the gallows; a ship was almost saved from shipwreck, but she went to the bottom with all hands on board; a fire was almost extinguished, but it consumed a city; a man almost decided remains to perish in the flames of hell. So is it with you; except you believe, all these things which you possess of good desire and emotion, shall be of no service to you at all, for he that believeth not shall be damned. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The demand for a sign

When Christ was on earth He was again and again assailed by this cry, Show us a sign. What sign showest Thou?

And there was an offer accompanying it. Show us this, and we will see and believe. If a man says to the holy and merciful Saviour, There is one proof which would satisfy me--which of us would not say, Surely Christ will grant it? Even if the thing asked he unreasonable, yet surely Christ will not be extreme to mark it--He will do what even prejudice asks--the end is good, and the means to it at least not evil. It is a natural question--we must not leave it without a word in answer--Why was Christ displeased, why is God silent, when this is the prayer? And I think we shall say--

1. Because there is a radical fault in the prayer itself. It originates, where it ought to follow; it prescribes, where it ought to accept. There is a thorough upsetting and subverting, in such prayer, of the relationship of man to his God. In such prayer man goes first, and God is to go after. Man says, I will give the law to my God--I will tell Him what He ought to do--and then, if He does that, I will have Him; not else. The very prayer ispresumption.

2. But again, Because the result thus reached is not the rest and the inheritance which God designs for us. A man who believes because he sees has not got at last the salvation which he came for. It is a poor inferior mechanical process altogether, this conviction by the help of signs.

3. We might add yet one other reason, and say, Because such proofs would hopelessly perplex and alienate the mind which expects the dealing of God to be uniform and consistent in all its provinces of operation. (Dean Vaughan.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 11:29-32. When the people were gathered thick together. — It seems, on this occasion, the multitude gathered round him in a great crowd, and pressed upon him, in expectation that he was going to show them the sign from heaven which some of them had required from him. But he repulsed them, by telling them that they were an evil race of men, who discovered a very perverse disposition, in seeking signs after so many miracles had been wrought by him; for which reason no greater sign should be given them than those they were daily beholding, except the sign of the Prophet Jonas. See notes on Mat 12:38-42. They repented at the preaching of Jonas — But it was only for a season. Afterward they relapsed into wickedness, till (after about forty years) they were destroyed. It is remarkable, that in this also the comparison held. God reprieved the Jews for about forty years: but they still advanced in wickedness, till, having filled up their measure, they were destroyed with an utter destruction.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

§ 43. THE SEEKING FOR A SIGN, Luk_11:29-32.

Mat_12:38-45.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. A Sign for the Eye and an Eye for the Sign (Luk_11:29-36)

(Comp. Mat_12:38-42; Mat_6:22-23.)

29And when the people were gathered [gathering] thick together, he began to say, This [generation7] is an evil generation: they seek [it seeks] a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas [Jonah] the prophet [om., the prophet8]. 30For as Jonas [Jonah] was [became] a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. 31The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater [πλεῖον, neuter; lit., something more] than Solomon is here. 32The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas 33[Jonah]; and, behold, a greater than Jonas [πλεῖον ’Ιωνᾶ] is here. [And] No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a [the] bushel,but on a [the] candlestick, that they which come in may see the light. 34The light of the body is the [thine9] eye: therefore when thine eye is single [sound], thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil [diseased], thy body also is full of darkness. 35Take heed therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness 36If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a [the] candle [with its brilliancy, τῇ ἀστραπῇ; om., the bright-shining] doth give thee light.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk_11:29. He began to say.—The occasion for this discourse of rebuke on the part of the Saviour Luke has already, Luk_11:16, communicated at the same time with the judgment of the Pharisees. Matthew keeps the two elements, Luk_12:24; Luk_12:38, more exactly apart, arranging them chronologically. According to his account it is principally Pharisees and Scribes who desire to see the sign from heaven, in whom, however, the Saviour, with the most perfect right, views the legitimate representatives of the whole evil and adulterous generation of His contemporaries. According to Luke they are indeed ἄλλοι than those who had before spoken, yet by no means animated with a better spirit. They will tempt Jesus (πειράζοντες) in that they laid for Him a snare, indirectly support their humiliated and castigated friends, and desire something of Him which He could not refuse them without exciting much remark. If we are not disposed by the sign from heaven to understand an actual revelation of the Shekinah, they have at all events some kind of cosmic phenomenon in mind, either an eclipse of the sun or moon, or a meteor, or something of the sort, which, however, must be so far different from the other miracles of our Lord as this, that it was to be performed, not on men who surrounded Him, but on objects which were apparently elevated above Him, and was therefore to strike the eye so much the more strongly. Perhaps they find occasion for this inquiry in the definite assurance of the Saviour that He cast out demons ἐν δακτῦλω̣ Θεοῦ, at which they in a hypocritical tone declared themselves ready to acknowledge Him as soon as He should have given them an incontestable proof of His heavenly mission. It is in this case much easier to understand that the Saviour, agreeably to His principle, performed no sign before them, since He found in them not the slightest receptivity for the moral impression of His miracles: comp. Mat_13:58.

There shall no sign be given it.—This whole answer of the Saviour breathes, besides righteous displeasure, a heavenly composure and wisdom: for it gave all to whom the truth was dear, plainly to understand that His refusal to give a sign was perfectly just, and besides that only conditional, and finally, that it was only temporary.

The sign of Jonah.—The briefer expression of Luke must be explained by the more developed statement of the language of our Lord in Matt. Luk_12:40, of whose genuineness and exactness there is no occasion whatever to doubt. “The reference of the sign of Jonah merely to the preaching and manifestation of the Saviour in Paulus, Schleiermacher, Neander, a. o., needs no refutation.” Lange. Had the Saviour wished to refer to that alone, He would then have had to express Himself more exactly, and to say: As Jonas was a sign to the Ninevites, so is also the Son of man for this generation. The ἔσται itself points to the future. As Jonah from the belly of the fish had come forth, to appear to the Ninevites, so should the risen Jesus be for His contemporaries a sign, but not from heaven; from the depth of the earth shall this sign be given, but yet it should serve for their condemnation. The parallel consists in this, that Jonah goes down into the fish’s belly, and after three days’ abode therein, comes again out of the same, while Christ descends into the heart of the earth, Sheol (Meyer), and also after the same time again gloriously appears. And if we must also, according to Jonah 2, conceive the prophet as living in the belly of the fish, this takes nothing from the general correctness of the comparison. As respects, however, the difficulty as to the designation of time, a νυχθήμερον does not need always to endure just twenty-four full hours. See 1Sa_30:12-13, and in the Talmud Hieros. it is expressly stated: “Day and night make together a period (עוֹנָח), and the part of such an one is as the whole.” Comp. Stier, R. J. II., p. 53.

Luk_11:31. The Queen of the South.—Comp. Lange on Mat_12:42. Less precisely has Luke placed the comparison with Solomon before that with Jonah and the Ninevites, because then the beautiful climax of the discourse is lost. The Queen of Sheba had given yet greater proofs of faith and exhibited yet more interest than the Ninevites, who believed on the word spoken in their immediate vicinity; for out of distant lands had she come to hear the wisdom of Solomon, while the Jews contemned what they could find in their immediate neighborhood, and yet there was more here than Solomon!

More than Solomon.—In order to feel the power of this comparison, in which the wisdom of Solomon is to be kept carefully in mind as the tertium comparationis, we must not only realize to ourselves what is written in the Old Testament regarding Solomon, but also especially what tradition had added to this, in reference to his magic words, his ring, his knowledge of the secrets of the spiritual world, &c, in consequence of which Solomon stood in almost unearthly glory before the eyes of the contemporaries of Jesus. [The simple reference to the scriptural account of Solomon appears quite sufficient, without supposing our Saviour to have taken any account of the superstitious fables respecting Him.—C. C. S.]

Luk_11:32. The men of Nineveh.—It cannot be stated with certainty whether Jonah made to the Ninevites any intimation of the miracle that had happened to him or not. But even supposing he did not, the contrast is then so much the stronger. The Ninevites believed Jonah upon his word, without knowing anything of the miracle. The Jews, on the other hand, had not only heard the preaching of Jesus, but also afterwards an account of His resurrection, and yet they believed not. In no case, therefore, is the judgment here uttered by Jesus too hard.

Luk_11:33. And no man.—Course of thought: I am more than Jonah (Luk_11:32); but in order to know this one does not (as you do) put the light under a bushel. Unquestionably Jesus, according to Luke, appears to wish to denounce the insincerity of His adversaries (De Wette). Comp. Mat_5:15; Luk_8:16.—εἰς κρυπτήν, that is, in a vault, a cellar, the familiar crypta of ancient buildings and churches. See Meyer, ad loc.

Luk_11:34. When thine eye is sound.—Comp. Mat_6:22-23. If the light is to be permitted to shine brightly before the eyes of others upon the candlestick, then it is above all things necessary to preserve to one’s self the light of his own power of perception undarkened and bright. Respecting the inner eye, see Lange on the parallel passage in Matthew. There appears to be indicated by this an immediate original consciousness of God, to which also Paul, Act_17:27, alludes. It appears, therefore, that according to the doctrine of the Saviour, the organ exists even in fallen man by which revealed truth can be viewed, and it may be said that here, as also in Mat_13:12, the general law is stated according to which an increase of the inner light and of the spiritual life takes place in man. If we assume that Luke communicates this saying of the Saviour in its exact historical connection, then especially must we not leave out of view that Jesus here speaks of the people (Luk_11:29), but not exclusively of His disciples, so that by the eye and the light of which here He speaks, we must understand, not anything specifically Christian, but something generically human.

Luk_11:35. Take heed, therefore.—Only in Luke does the admonition appear in this definite form. The same thought is uttered in the τὸ σκότος πόσον in Matthew. The Saviour fears that the here-indicated darkening is already found in part in His hearers, and warns them therefore to look to it that it do not become a total darkening.

Luk_11:36. If thy whole body therefore. This saying also only Luke has preserved. The appearance of a weak tautology, of which expositors complain, is best avoided if in the protasis we let the emphasis fall upon ὅλον, in the apodosis upon φωτεινὀν, ὡς ὅταν, κ.τ.λ. The sense is then this: Only when thy body is wholly illumined, without having even an obscure corner left therein, will it become so bright and clear as if the full brilliancy of a bright lamp illumined thee; in other words, thou wilt be placed in a normal condition of light.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. It is from a Christologico-psychological point of view noticeable how it is the repelling of the charge of diabolical agency, which disposes and occasions the Lord to give forth one of the most elevated expressions of His self-consciousness, in that He places Himself far above Jonah and Solomon. As this comparison gives proof of His true humanity, it at the same time places the superhuman in His activity in the brightest light.

2. The sign of the prophet Jonah is essentially the great sign which the Saviour, even in the beginning of His ministry, had intimated to the hostile ’Ιουδαίοις, Joh_2:19-21. Thus, therefore, does the Saviour in Jerusalem and Galilee, over against similar opposers, and now, after the lapse of a year, remain fully consistent with Himself.

3. The craving for wonders is a diseased condition of soul, which can never be satisfied, and which, therefore, is combated by the Saviour with all His might. Comp. Joh_4:48. And so much the stronger opposition did He present to this temptation since it was in its deepest ground a Satanic one, and really a repetition of the request that He should perform a miracle of display. Comp. Luk_4:9-10. The Saviour could so much the less satisfy the demand of His contemporaries, as these were wholly wanting in the holy sense of light [Lichtsinn] which had animated the Ninevites in reference to Jonah and the Queen of the South in reference to Solomon.

4. It is manifestly here expressed that the truth revealed to man in the Gospel stands, not as something entirely foreign, over against and outside of him, but as related to the inmost constitution and the highest receptivity of his nature, as the eye and the light are, as it were, made for one another. Here holds good the beautiful expression of Goethe: Wär nicht das Auge sonnenhaft, wie könnten wir das Licht erblicken, &c. [Were not the eye akin to the sun, how could we behold the light?] And the Christian hymn, Heil’ge Einfalt, Gnadenwunder. [Holy simplicity, miracle of grace.]

5. “So can and should the receptivity of light in the spiritual sense (reason, feeling, and conscience) be cherished and kindled to the light of life and of the body. The essence of the care of the same is the simplicity, that is, the completeness, concentration, and consistency of the inner life. For this light-sense the word of God now necessarily becomes the inner light of life, which gradually drives out even from the corporal and sensual sphere of life all elements of obscuration, all fragments of the old night, till the whole being of the man, even his exterior, is not only illumined, but also diffuses light, a clear, beautiful, and consecrated beam of God.” Lange.

[“And in clear dream and solemn vision

Tell her of things that no gross ear may hear,

Till oft converse with Heavenly habitant

Begins to cast a beam on th’ outward shape,

The unpolluted temple of the mind,

And turns it by degrees to the soul’s essence,

Till all be made immortal.”               Comus.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Outward hearing of the word joined with inward enmity and perverted designs.—The unappeasable greediness for ever greater and greater wonders.—The request for a sign from Heaven an indirect proof of the reality of the other signs on earth.—The resurrection of the Lord the highest sign of His Messianic dignity.—Jonah and the Son of man: 1. What advantage the former appears to have over the latter; 2. wherein both stand on a level; 3. wherein the latter infinitely excels the former.—More than Solomon is here. We consider in reference to this saying: 1. How strange it sounds; 2. how true it Isaiah 3. of what moment it continues to be.—The wisdom of the Saviour and the wisdom of Solomon: the first had: 1. A higher originality (Joh_6:46); 2. a wider extent (Joh_6:68); 3. a more salutary purpose (Mat_5:48) than the latter.—The different grades of the damnableness of sin: 1. Penitent heathen rise up against unbelieving Jews; 2. Jews longing for salvation against hypocritical nominal Christians.—The greater the privilege the heavier the responsibility.—The brightest light is lost when it is either: 1. Set under a bushel, or 2. viewed with diseased eyes.—As the light for the eye and the eye for the light, so are Christ and man made for one another.—The hopeless condition of the man in whom the inner light is wholly darkened; it is darkness: 1. In him; 2. around him; 3. above him.—The single eye and the illumined body, the diseased eye and the darkened body.—What must there be in man if he will rightly understand and esteem revealed truth? Comp. Joh_7:17.—Between truth and man there exists the same inner relation as between the light and the eye.

Starke:—Brentius:—In the work of salvation God does nothing new for any man: the matter proceeds in the way once shown in the Holy Scriptures.—Cramer:—The Old and the New Testament explain one another clearly.—Hedinger:—Terrible is it that the poor yet right-minded heathen, the blind people who yet have striven after virtue, shall herein condemn many Christians.—The doctrine of the last judgment is a fundamental article of the Christian religion, and must therefore be often urged with great earnestness.—Bibl. Wirt:—Christian preachers should be in an exceptional manner a light in the Lord.—Man needs that his soul should be filled with the divine light if he will do the works of light.—Enter diligently into thine heart and be for its enlightenment and amendment unweariedly concerned. Psa_139:23-24. The condition of a man before, in, and after, conversion may be well compared with the night, with the break of day, and with day itself.

Heubner:—Christ must hare accounted the history of Jonah a true history, for, a. He would not have compared Himself with a fabulous hero; b. nor could the Ninevites, if their repentance after Jonah’s preaching is a mere fable, judge the Jews of that time.—Every converted man is for the unconverted that know him a judging, condemning example.—How often do people run and study for the sake of earthly wisdom, while Christ’s wisdom, so near at hand, is despised; men have a disgust at it, and deify the wisdom of the dust.

Footnotes:

[7]Luk_11:29.—According to the reading approved by Tischendorf on preponderating grounds: ἡ γενεὰ αὔτη γενεὰ πονηρά εστιν. [Supported also by Cod. Sin.]

[8]Luk_11:29.—Rec.: τοῦ προφήτου, taken from the parallel passage in Matthew. [Omitted also by Cod. Sin.]

[9]Luk_11:34.—Rec.: ὁ ὀφθαλμός—Mat_6:22—σου is, however, decidedly supported and already approved by Griesbach. [Supported also by Cod. Sin.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11:29-30 The sign of Jonah could refer to the resurrection; Jonah’s time in the fish was a sign to the Ninevites that God had sent him, like Jesus’ time in the grave (see Matt 12:40). It could simply mean that Jonah and Jesus both preached God’s warning to repent (see Luke 11:32).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 11:29. Τῶν δὲ ὄχλων, but when crowds [the multitudes]) This took place at the same time. Comp. Luk 11:37, at the beginning.—[ἐπαθροιζομένων, were rushing in upon Him [“were gathered thick together,” Engl. Vers.]) to see whether a sign was about to follow from heaven. See Luk 11:16.—V. g.]

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk_11:29-32. See on Mat_12:39-42. Jesus now, down to Luk_11:36, turns His attention to the dismissal of those ἕτεροι who had craved from Him a σημεῖον ἐξ οὐρανοῦ (Luk_11:16).

ἤρξατο] He first began this portion of His address when the crowds were still assembling thither, i.e. were assembling in still greater numbers (ἐπαθροιζ.), comp. Plut. Anton. 44. But it is arbitrary to regard this introductory notice of the assembling of the people as deduced by Luke himself from the condemnation of the entire generation (Weizsäcker).

Luk_11:30. Comp. Mat_16:4. Jonah was for the Ninevites a sign (divinely sent) by means of his personal destiny, ὅτι ὑ̔περφυῶς ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας τοῦ κήτους ἐῤῥύσθη τριήμερος. Jesus became for that generation a sign (divinely sent, and that as Messiah) likewise by His personal destiny, ὅτι ὑ̔περφυῶς ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας τῆς γῆς ἀνέστη τριήμερος, Euthymius Zigabenus. In opposition to those who interpret the sign of Jonah only of Christs word (as even Schenkel and Weizsäcker, p. 431), see on Mat_12:40, Remark. The sign of Jonah belongs entirely to the future (δοθήσεται … ἔσται).

Luk_11:31 f. does not stand in a wrong order (de Wette), although the order in Matthew is probably the original, while that in Luke is arranged chronologically and by way of climax.

μετὰ τῶν ἀνδρῶν κ.τ.λ.] she will appear with the men, etc., brings into greater prominence the womans condemning example.

ἄνδρες Νινευῖται] without an article: Men of Nineveh.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 11:29-32 . The sign of Jonah (Mat 12:38-42 ). Τ . ὄ . ἐπαθροιζομένων , the crowds thronging to Him. The heading for the following discourse has been anticipated in Luk 11:16 ; ἕτεροι πειράζοντες , instead of Mt.’s scribes and Pharisees, asking a sign. In Lk.’s narrative Jesus answers their question in presence of a gathering crowd supposed to be referred to in the expression ἡ γενεὰ αὕτη . ἐπαθροίζω occurs here only in N.T. ἡ γενεὰ αὕτη , etc., this generation is an evil generation; said in reference to the crowd supposed to sympathise with and share the religious characteristics of their leaders. The epithet μοιχαλὶς (Mat 12:39 ) is omitted as liable to be misunderstood by non-Hebrew readers.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4 th. Luk 11:29-36. The Second Discourse.

This is the answer of Jesus to the demand which was addressed to Him to work a miracle proceeding from heaven (Luk 11:16). Strauss does not think that Jesus could have reverted to so secondary a question after the extremely grave charge with which He had been assailed. We have already pointed out the relation which exists between those two subjects. The miracle proceeding from heaven was claimed from Jesus as the only means He had of clearing Himself from the suspicion of complicity with Satan. In the first part of His reply, Jesus speaks of the only sign of the kind which shall be granted to the nation (Luk 11:29-32); in the second, of the entire sufficiency of this sign in the case of every one who has the eye of his soul open to behold it (Luk 11:33-36).

Vers. 29-32. The Sign from Heaven.—“And when the people thronged together, He began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas. 30. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. 31. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. 32. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”

During the previous scene, a crowd, growing more and more numerous, had gathered; and it is before it that Jesus gives the following testimony against the national unbelief. In the πονηρά, wicked, there is an allusion to the diabolical spirit which had dictated the call for a sign (πειράζοντες, Luk 11:16).

The point of comparison between Jonas and Jesus, according to Luke, appears at first sight to be only the fact of their preaching, while in Mat 12:39-40 it is evidently the miraculous deliverance of the one and the resurrection of the other. M. Colani concludes from this difference that Matthew has materialized the comparison which Jesus gave forth in a purely moral sense (Luke). But it must not be forgotten that Jesus says in Luke, as well as in Matthew: “The Son of man shall be (ἔσται) a sign,” by which He cannot denote His present preaching and appearance, the Fut. necessarily referring to an event yet to come,—an event which can be no other than the entirely exceptional miracle of His resurrection. They ask of Jesus a sign ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, proceeding from heaven, Luk 11:16. His resurrection, in which no human agency intervenes, and in which divine power appears alone, fully satisfies, and only satisfies, this demand. This is the feature which Peter asserts in Act 2:24; Act 2:32; Act 3:15, etc.: “God hath raised up Jesus.” In Joh 2:19, Jesus replies to a similar demand by announcing the same event. The thought in Luke and Matthew is therefore exactly the same: “It was as one who had miraculously escaped from death that Jonas presented himself before the Ninevites, summoning them to anticipate the danger which threatened them; it is as the risen One that I (by my messengers) shall proclaim salvation to the men of this generation.” Which of the two texts is it which reproduces the answer of our Lord most exactly? But our passage may be parallel with Mat 16:4, where the form is that of Luke. As to the words of Mat 12:39-40, they must be authentic. No one would have put into the mouth of Jesus the expression, three days and three nights, when Jesus had actually remained in the tomb only one day and two nights.

But how shall this sign, and this preaching which will accompany it, be received? It is to this new thought that Luk 11:31-32 refer. Of the two examples which Jesus quotes, Matthew puts that of the Ninevites first, that of the queen of Sheba second. Luke reverses the order. Here again it is easy to perceive the superiority of Luke’s text. 1. Matthew’s order has been determined by the natural tendency to bring the example of the Ninevites into immediate proximity with what Jesus has been saying of Jonah 2. Luke’s order presents an admirable gradation: while the wisdom of Solomon sufficed to attract the queen of Sheba from such a distance, Israel demands that to the infinitely higher wisdom of Jesus there should be added a sign from heaven. This is serious enough. But matters will be still worse: while the heathen of Nineveh were converted by the voice of Jonas escaped from death, Israel, at the sight of Jesus raised from the dead, shall not be converted.

Comp. as to the Queen of the South, 1Ki 10:1 et seq. Seba seems to have been a part of Arabia-Felix, the modern Yemen. ᾿Εγερθήσεται, shall rise up from her tomb on the day of the great awakening, at the same time as the Jews (μετά, with, not against), so that the blindness of the latter shall appear in full light, contrasted with the earnestness and docility of the heathen queen. The word ἄνδρων, “the men of this generation,” certainly indicates a contrast with her female sex. Indeed, this term ἄνδρες, men, does not reappear in the following example, where this generation is not compared with a woman. Perhaps the choice of the first instance was suggested to Jesus by the incident which had just taken place, Luk 11:27-28.

The word ἀναστήσονται, Luk 11:32, shall rise up, denotes a more advanced degree of life than ἐγερθήσονται (shall awake). These dead are not rising from their tombs, like the queen of Sheba; they are already in their place before the tribunal as accusing witnesses. How dramatic is everything in the speech of Jesus! and what variety is there in the smallest details of His descriptions!

Vers. 33-36. The Spiritual Eye.—“No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under the bushel, but on the candlestick, that they which come in may see the light. 34. The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy whole body is full of darkness. 35. Take heed, therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness. 36. If thy whole body, therefore, be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.”

Christ,—such is the sign from heaven whose light God will diffuse over the world. He is the lamp which gives light to the house. God has not lighted it to allow it to be banished to an obscure corner; He will put it on a candlestick, that it may shine before the eyes of all; and this He will do by means of the resurrection. Κρυπτήν, a place out of view, under a bed, e.g., (Luk 8:16). Τὸν μόδιον, not a bushel, but the bushel; there is but one in the house, which serves in turn as a measure, a dish, or a lantern.

But it is with this sign in relation to our soul, as with a lamp relatively to our body, Luk 11:34. To the light which shines without there must be a corresponding organ in the individual fitted to receive it, and which is thus, as it were, the lamp within. On the state of this organ depends the more or less of light which we receive from the external luminary, and which we actually enjoy. In the body this organ, which by means of the external light forms the light of the whole body, the hand, the foot, etc., is the eye; everything, therefore, depends on the state of this organ. For the soul it is

Jesus does not say what, He leaves us to guess—the heart, καρδία; comp. Mat 6:21-22. The understanding, the will, the whole spiritual being, is illuminated by the divine light which the heart admits. With every motion in the way of righteousness there is a discharge of light over the whole soul. ῾Απλοῦς, single, and hence in this place,—which is in its original, normal state; πονηρός, corrupted, and hence diseased, in the meaning of the phrase πονηρῶς ἔχειν to be ill. If the Jews were right in heart, they would see the divine sign put before their eyes as easily as the Queen of the South and the Ninevites perceived the less brilliant sign placed before them; but their heart is perverse: that organ is diseased; and hence the sign shines, and will shine, in vain before their view. The light without will not become light in them.

Ver. 35. It is supremely important, therefore, for every one to watch with the greatest care over the state of this precious organ. If the eye is not enlightened, what member of the body will be so? The foot and hand will act in the darkness of night. So with the faculties of the soul when the heart is perverted from good.

Ver. 36. But what a contrast to this condition is formed by that of a being who opens his heart fully to the truth, his spiritual eye to the brightness of the lamp which has been lighted by God Himself! To avoid the tautology which the two members of the verse seem to present, we need only put the emphasis differently in the two propositions: in the first on ὅλον, whole; and in the second on φωτεινόν, full of light, connecting this word immediately with the following as its commentary: full of light as when...The very position of the words forbids any other grammatical explanation; and it leads us to this meaning: “When, through the fact of the clearness of thine eye, thy whole body shall be penetrated with light, without there being in thee the least trace of darkness, then the phenomenon which will be wrought in thee will resemble what takes place on thy body when it is placed in the rays of a luminous focus.” Jesus means, that from the inward part of a perfectly sanctified man there rays forth a splendour which glorifies the external man, as when he is shone upon from without. It is glory as the result of holiness. The phenomenon described here by Jesus is no other than that which was realized in Himself on the occasion of His transfiguration, and which He now applies to all believers. Passages such as 2Co 3:18 and Rom 8:29 will always be the best commentary on this sublime declaration, which Luke alone has preserved to us, and which forms so perfect a conclusion to this discourse.

Bleek having missed the meaning of this saying, and of the piece generally, accuses Luke of having placed it here without ground, and prefers the setting which it has in Matthew, in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, immediately after the maxim: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Undoubtedly this context of Matthew proves, as we have recognised, that the eye of the soul, according to the view of Jesus, is the heart. But what disturbs the purity of that organ is not merely avarice, as would appear from the context of Matthew 6. It is sin in general, perversity of heart hostile to the light; and this more general application is precisely that which we find in Luke. This passage has been placed in the Sermon on the Mount, like so many others, rather because of the association of ideas than from historical reminiscence. The context of Luke, from Luk 11:14 to Luk 11:36, is without fault. On the one side the accusation and demand made by the enemies of Jesus, Luk 11:15-16, on the other the enthusiastic exclamation of the believing woman, Luk 11:27-28, furnish Jesus with the starting-points for His two contrasted descriptions,—that of growing blindness which terminates in midnight darkness, and that of gradual illumination which leads to perfect glory. We may, after this, estimate the justness of Holtzmann’s judgment: “It is impossible to connect this passage about light, in a simple and natural way, with the discourse respecting Jonas.”

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They that are fond desireres of miracles, instead of miracles shall receive punishment.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(See on Mat 12:39-42.)

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 29. This is an evil generation] Or, This is a wicked race of men. See on Mt 12:38-42.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(29-32) This is an evil generation: they seek a sign.—See Notes on Mat_12:38-42. The words here spoken are clearly an answer to the demand for a sign in Luk_11:16. In St. Matthew the demand and the answer appear in close sequence.

The variations in St. Luke are (1) the omission of the explanation of the manner in which the sign of the prophet Jonah was to be fulfilled by the three days and three nights in the heart of the earth; (2) the position of the reference to the queen of the south, as coming between the sign of Jonah and the rising of the men of Nineveh. In other respects the agreement is more than usually complete.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29. were gathered] Rather, were densely gathering.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The queen of the south,.... That is, the queen of Sheba, which was a country of Arabia, which lay south of Judea; of whom it is said, that

she shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: the sense is, that at the last day, when all shall rise from the dead, both Jews and Gentiles, this Heathen queen shall rise together with the men of the present generation among the Jews, stand in judgment with them, and against them; and that her conduct would be brought as an evidence against them, and be improved as an aggravation of their condemnation:

for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold a greater than Solomon is here: the difference between them, and what aggravates the case is, that she was a Gentile that knew not God, they were Jews, his professing people; she came from afar, they were near, upon the spot, where Christ was, he was preaching in their streets, temple, and synagogues; she came to hear only natural or moral wisdom, but they might have heard spiritual and heavenly wisdom, with which eternal happiness is connected; she came to hear only a mere man, but they might have heard him who is the wisdom of God, and the only wise God, and our Saviour; See Gill on Mat 12:42.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

29 And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.

Ver. 29. Were gathered thick together] All on a heap, επαθροιζομενων, either to see a sign, or to hear what he would say to the motion.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See the notes at Mat 12:38-42.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

But the sign of Jonas. Instead of a prodigy in the heavens or in the air, I will give you one in the bosom of the earth, more wonderful than that of the prophet Jonas, who came out alive from the belly of the fish, which had swallowed him. Thus I will return alive from the bosom of the earth three days after my death. (Calmet) --- He gave them a sign, not from heaven, for they were unworthy to behold it, but from the deep; the sign of his incarnation, not of his divinity; of his passion, not of his glory. (Ven. Bede)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

See Poole on "Mat 12:38", and following verses to Mat 12:42. Matthew saith, they were the Pharisees that came to him, desiring to see a sign from heaven: they did the same again, Mat 16:1. Christ was very ready to work miracles to encourage and confirm his hearers’ faith, but not to satisfy unbelievers’ curiosity. Instead therefore of showing them signs from heaven, he denounces the just judgment of God against them, for their not believing in him. See further the notes upon the aforementioned parallel texts.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 29, 30. And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. Jesus now proceeds the crowd was, we read, become denser to reply to the unbelieving suggestion that he should show by a sign from heaven that it was not by the help of Satan and the powers of hell that he was enabled to exercise so mighty a power over the spirits of evil. No sign of the startling nature demanded would be given to the Jews of his day. Evidence in support of his high claims and lofty assertions was then in process of being supplied. What were their eyes beholding day by day, and their ears hearing? Evidence still more complete would vet be given them, but it would avail nothing! Lo, the solemn sign of the Prophet Jonas, who preached to wicked Nineveh after his strange resurrectionthat would be given them. It is clear that St. Luke"s account of our Lord"s words is abbreviated. To make the symbolism of the resurrection-sign complete, we must compare St. Matthew"s report, (Mat_12:39, Mat_12:40) where in plain terms the Lord"s death, and the resting in the tomb, and subsequent resurrection is foretold, and compared to the well-known story of the entombment of Jonah at sea for three days. This simile of the Master"s was no doubt one repeated on several occasions. It is likely enough that it was so well-known a comparison when St. Luke wrote his memoir of the life that the evangelist felt it was not needful to go into all the details of the comparison; to mention the simile was enough; no Christian individual, household, or congregation but could at once fill up the details originally spoken by the Lord here. In the catacombs the Jonah-story is, owing to its use by our Lord, an oft-repeated and very favourite representation on those long galleries of tombs of Christian men and women of the first three centuries.

Vers. 29-36. Truth; the conditions of its reception, and our responsibility with regard to it.

We are on trial, placed in a scene of conflict between good and evil, and called to make our election. Our whole life is such an election; every day, every action, goes to complete that solemn probation on which depend issues of unspeakable moment. Such has always been the contention of Christian teachers. There is a higher aspect of life than that. To say that life is a Divine education is to give the fuller and nobler conception of God"s purpose concerning us. He is not merely testing us; he is training us, disciplining our character, seeking to perfect our moral being. This world is his school, and the influences of which we are conscious, the events which mark our days, the varieties in befalling and condition, are the schoolmasters through which he is stimulating or correcting, guiding or controlling, the natures with which we are endowed. But it is wrong to set this higher, as against the other aspect referred to. The two that which regards probation and that which regards education are not opposed. Our part is to refuse the evil and to choose the good, and to stand by our choice. In respect of this we are on trial. We are called to work out our own salvation with fiat and trembling. Yet, in all, God is working in us to will and to do; educating the response of our will to his, that as his dear children we may walk before him in love. In this passage the Lord reminds all to whom he speaks of the relation of the human mind to the truth that looks down from heaven. His discourse bears on the test of inward state supplied by the attitude of the mind to the truth. Let us listen to it as reminding us

(1) of the proper and characteristic force of truth;

(2) of the spiritual condition in which this force is realized;

(3) of the responsibility with regard to it which rests on us individually.

I THE PROPER AND CHARACTERISTIC FORCE OF TRUTH. Christ is grieved with the generation whose representatives are with him. He had wrought in their presence the works of God; he had spoken to them the words of God. And what did they aver? That he was secretly leagued with Beelzebub; in the ministry of love they saw the malignities of hell, the finger, not of God, but of Satan. Those who shrank from such wilful misconstruction clamoured for a sign some portent in the skies, some miracle so striking as to prove the Divine Source of his mission. And, feeling the pain of this contradiction of sinners, he says (vers. 29-32), "Sign, more than the preaching itself? What Jonah was to the Ninevites the testimony against them that the Son of man shall be. Sign, more than the preaching itself? The heathen Queen of Ethiopia shall condemn them; for her the preaching of Solomon was enough, and the Greater than Solomon is here. The people of heathen Nineveh shall condemn them, for they repented when the prophet preached; and yet this generation repents not, though the Son of God is himself speaking to it. Sign? The troth is its own sign. It is open; it may be known and read of all men. It is light (ver. 34), not covered by a bushel, but set as a candle on a candlestick, that all who come into the house may see it." This is the abiding characteristic of truth. It is light. Pharisees with cabbalistic lore, so-called philosophers, with their doctrine for the initiated, their pretentious knowledge, are not the light-givers. "Whatsoever doth make manifest is light." When the soul is interpreted or helped; when God in nature, in providence, or in thought, is declared; when the relations and proportions of facts are discerned; when the order of the universe is apprehended and felt; when, if puzzle and problem are not seen through, the light pierces into what is beyond, and the heart is enabled to say, "I cannot understand, I love; when thus the truth is known, the truth that is known makes free. It is the freedom of light before which the darkness passes. Let us realize the self-evidencing nature of truth. Signs outward and carnal it does not need. What speaks of Christ in miracle is not the mere wonder. That only called attention to the real sign, the object and the manner of the work. The claim of truth consists, not in what adheres to it, but in what it is. We do not need a sign to tell us that the sun shines; the shining is the sign. We do not need a sign to tell us that a candle is lit; the candlestick shows that. And so with regard to Christianity. As it has eloquently been said, "The central unquestionable miracle is Jesus himself One from the cradle to the grave, walking in spotless purity, through all temptation wearing a conscience without a scar, treading the great deep of human life and never wetting his feet with the spray; equally at home with saints in the glory of the mount, and with men writhing in misery at its base; elect to wipe away the tear of humanity, to bear it undwarfed and undimmed to the heavenly places, yet to whom we can go when the shame burns in the cheek, and the sweat stands on the brow." Ah! yes; and this miracle is still writing its n,ark on the conscience and life of man. Persons speak dolefully about the decadence of the evangelical faith, and indeed the signs are mixed; but the evangel of the living Christ is still the power of God never more than now "The presence of a good diffused, And in diffusion ever more intense.

Not less, but all the more, as the world waxes old, and the needs of men become more urgent and complicated, is this evangel "the light shining in the darkness, and the darkness will never overtake it.

II But now observe THE CONDITIONS 0N WHICH THE FORCE OF THE TRUTH 1S REALIZED. These conditions, as stated by the Lord, are two.

1. There is the quality of the receptive organ. "The light of the body is the eye" (ver. 34). Whatever affects the eye affects the impression of the object beheld. For example, the very common defect known as color-blindness necessarily vitiates the discernment. Any injury to the eye, any disturbance of the wondrously delicate mechanism, mars the vision. All this has its moral counterpart. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." The truth presented to the soul may yet not be apprehended as truth by the soul, and the fault lies in the soul itself. The moral necessarily acts on the intellectual. The intellectual life that springs out of or develops in harmony with a developing spiritual life is the light of the soul. All is then beheld in its real force and its right proportions. But not otherwise. And therefore the great Teacher emphasizes the need of "the single eye," the mind purely intentioned to know God and his will and truth, and this intention undisturbed by appetite of sense, or by prejudice closing against the evidence of the light. Ah, the single eye! The tiniest mote may confuse and becloud. One cunning bosom sin, one aberration from the right, so small as scarcely to be thought of, may yet impair the organ. And once let the eye become evil, "thy body also is full of darkness.

2. There is, as the second condition, a complete enlightenment of mind (ver. 36). See to it that every part of the thinking, willing, activity is submitted to the light. The whole being must be yielded to it. "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." It is the partial illumination which we have so often to deplore. The prophet describes Ephraim as "a cake not turned one part of it under the influence of the fire, burned; the other part uninfluenced and doughy. So there is often to be noticed an imperfect sanctifying of character, an imperfect acquaintance with the way of the Lord. Men are always apt to measure what is due to God, what is to be kept for themselves. The apostle says, "The God of peace sanctify you wholly. " We are often pained by a narrowness of view in Christians, by their failure in learning the lesson suggested by the evangelist, when he speaks of Christ "looking round about on all things." We are often pained, again, by a so-called breadth of view no height in it, no mountain, forgetful that in the city which lieth foursquare, the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. Oh, how needful is the prayer to increase in the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding! Offer all, conscience, intellect, emotions, affections, will, all to the light; make an unreserved surrender. "If the whole be full of light, having no part dark, that whole is full of light." Not like a candle burning dimly, flickering and feeble, but as "when by its bright shining it giveth light.

III Here, then, is THE RESPONSIBILITY WITH REGARD TO THE TRUTH. Men discuss whether we are responsible for our faith. We are responsible for ourselves, and what we are individually will greatly determine what, individually, we believe. This seems most obvious. "Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness" (ver. 35). There is a light, a capacity of receiving and verifying the light, in every man unless, indeed, in rare cases, or in those who are described as "past feeling." In speaking to men, in preaching the gospel to every creature, we assume this. And it is this which defines the responsibility resting on all. For the state of this receptive faculty, for its exercise, we must answer. "Take heed," says the Master. How solemn and expressive his sentence!

Not merely "that the light shine," or "lest the light be extinguished," but more strongly still, "that this inner light be not darkness itself that what should lead to God does not take from God and become an angel, a power, of darkness. This was the catastrophe already fulfilling in the Pharisees, the catastrophe which he had declared (see parallel passage, Matthew 12). to be the sin against the Holy Ghost. And the word of warning still confronts us. Take care of all that savours of sophisticating the conscience. Take care of all that cuts off from the light. Take care lest your prayers lose tone, your desires lose fervor, your soul loses interest in Divine things. Take care lest any way of thought, through companions, or literature, or otherwise, blight what is best and holiest in yourselves. The life of God in a soul is very sensitive. It needs to be guarded; it needs to be kept open to all Heavenward influence; it needs to be ever filled anew out of the fullness of God. A very little may destroy the organ, may separate from the vision. "The little rift within the lute by-and-by will make the music mute." Walk in the light. As the Light of God is ever seeking you, so let the light in you be ever seeking him. "Feed daily on Christ in your heart by faith, with thanksgiving." Do God"s will with all the strength. Then the life is a beauteous order. Apart from the Light, the life is a chaos, a darkness how great!

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

It seeketh - The original word implies seeking more, or over and above what one has already.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

A Warning to the Jews.

v. 29. And when the people were gathered thick together, He began to say, This is an evil generation; they seek a sign, and there shall no sign be given it but the sign of Jonas the Prophet.

v. 30. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man be to this generation.

v. 31. The queen of the South shall rise up in the Judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

v. 32. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the Judgment with this generation and shall condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

The altercation with the Pharisees and scribes after the healing of the dumb demoniac had drawn a large crowd, and, as always under such circumstances, the crowd was quickly augmented and enlarged. And so Jesus took the opportunity of speaking to them all, taking His cue from the request that some of them wanted to see a sign from heaven. The entire generation, the whole race of the people that were here represented, were evil, wicked, far from knowing wherein true morality consists. They sought a sign, but they should not receive any in the sense which they had in mind. Only the sign of the Prophet Jonah would be set before them, just as the sign of the brazen serpent was placed before the children of Israel in the wilderness. The resurrection of Jesus is the one great sign from heaven before the people of all times. See Mat 12:38-42. Altogether, in his whole ministry, Jonah had been a sign to the inhabitants of Nineveh, as a preacher of righteousness unto salvation. And so Jesus was a sign to the people of His generation and times, proclaiming before them all the coming of the kingdom of God through faith in His ministry and work. But the results would not even measure up to those of Jonah, a fact which would redound to their own condemnation. For in the Judgment, on the day when God will judge the quick and the dead, the queen of the South, the rich and powerful queen that had come to visit Solomon, would appear with them, as their accuser, before the throne of the Judge. For she, for the sake of hearing the wisdom of a mere man, came from the extreme ends of the earth, 1Ki 10:1; but here, in the person of Jesus, stood one that was far greater than the ancient king, whose wisdom was immeasurably greater than that of Solomon. Instead of having people come to Him for the words of eternal life, He was obliged to go out and seek the people. And the queen of Sheba would be joined by the men of Nineveh, who would also arise to condemn this generation on the Bay of Judgment; for when Jonah preached his sermon of repentance to them, they gave heed and turned from the error of their ways. And here, in the person of Jesus, was a greater man than Jonah, Jonah’s God and Lord, in fact.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The sign which the Pharisees here desired of our Saviour, was a miracle wrought by him. Now our Saviour, though he was very ready to work miracles to encourage and confirm his hearers’ faith, yet not to satisfy the unbelieving Pharisees’ curiosity: and accordingly he tells them, they should have no other sign than that of his resurrection, which Jonas was a type of.

Next he threatens them for their obstinacy and infidelity, which he aggravates from the example of the queen of the south, and the men of Nineveh.

From thence learn, that the sins of infidelity and impenitency are exceedingly heightened, and their guilt aggravated, from the means afforded by God to bring men to faith and obedience. The sin of the Pharisees was infinitely greater in rejecting the evidence of Christ’s miracles, than the sin of the Ninevites would have been in refusing to hearken to Jonas’s ministry; therefore the Ninevites shall condemn the Pharisees.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29–32. They seek a sign. See notes on Matt. 12:38–42, where we have the same language reported.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Jesus continues teaching the crowd.

As the crowds were increasing

"As more people were joining the crowd" or "As the crowd was growing larger"

This generation is an evil generation. It seeks ... to it

Here "generation" refers to the people in it. AT: "The people living at this time are evil people. They seek ... to them" or "You people living at this time are evil people. You seek ... to you"

It seeks a sign

The information about what kind of sign it seeks can be made explicit. AT: "It wants me to perform a miracle as proof that I have come from God" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

no sign will be given to it

This can be stated in active form. AT: "God will not give it a sign" (See: Active or Passive)

the sign of Jonah

"what happened to Jonah" or "the miracle that God did for Jonah"

For just as Jonah became a sign ... so too ... this generation

This means that Jesus will serve as a sign from God for the Jews of that day in exactly the same way as Jonah served as a sign from God to the people of Nineveh.

Son of Man

Jesus is referring to himself.

this generation

"the people living today"

translationWords

generation

evil

sign

Jonah

Nineveh

Son of Man

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

29. ἐπαθροιζομένων. ‘Were densely gathering.’ The word occurs here alone in the N.T.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29.] This is now in answer to those who sought of Him a sign from Heaven.

τῶν ὄχλ. ἐπαθρ.… perhaps in expectation, as He paused in His discourse, that the sign was now about to be shewn:—see notes on Matt. for the main subject.

Here we have one part of the sign of Jonas brought out, which is not touched on in Matt., viz. his preaching after his resurrection to the Ninevites, announcing—for that would necessarily be involved in that preaching—the wonderful judgment of God in bringing him there,—and thus making his own deliverance, that he might preach to them, a sign to that people; which sign (ver. 32) they received, and repented;—but a greater than Jonas, shewing and preaching a greater sign by far, this generation shall reject.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29-36. The Rebuke to those who Demanded a Sign (ver. 16). A longer account of the first half of the rebuke is given Mat 12:39-42.

29. τῶν δὲ ὄχλων ἐπαθροιζομένων. Lk. once more notes how the multitude was attracted by Christ’s words and works: comp. ver. 27, 4:42, 5:1, 6:17, 7:11, 8:4, 19, 40, 9:11, 37, 12:1, 54, 14:25, 15:1, 18:36, 19:37, 48. The verb is a rare compound; here only in bibl. Grk. For ἤρξατο λέγειν see on 4:21 and 3:8. Το πονηρά Mt. adds καὶ μοιχαλίς.

εἰ μὴ τὸ σημεῖον Ἰωνᾶ. At first sight Lk. appears to make the parallel between Jonah and Christ to consist solely in their preaching repentance. He omits the explanation that Jonah was a type of the burial and resurrection of Christ. But δοθήσεται and ἔσται show that this explanation is implied. Christ had for long been preaching; yet He says, not that the sign has been given or is being given, but that it Shall be given. The infallible sign is still in the future, viz. His resurrection. Nevertheless, even that ought not to be necessary; for His teaching ought to have sufficed. Note the emphatic repetition of σημεῖον thrice in one verse.1

Some have interpreted σημεῖον οὐ δοθήσεται as meaning, either that Jesus wrought no miracles, or that He refused to use them as credentials of His Divine mission. It is sufficient to point to ver. 20, where Jesus appeals to His healing of a dumb and blind demoniac as proof that He is bringing the kingdom of God to them. The demand for a sign and the refusal to give it are no evidence as to Christ’s working miracles and employing them as credentials. What was demanded was something quite different from wonders such as Prophets and (as the Jews believed) magicians had wrought. These scribes and Pharisees wanted direct testimony from God Himself respecting Jesus and His mission, such as a voice from heaven or a pillar of fire. His miracles left them still able to doubt, and they ask to be miraculously convinced. This He refuses. See Neander, L. J. C. § 92, Eng. tr. p. 144.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Were gathered thick together [επαθροιζομενων] . The present participle; and therefore, as Rev., were gathering together unto him, or upon him [επι] . Only here in New Testament.

Evil. See on adulterous. Mt 12:39.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.