Luke 13:14

Luk 13:14-17. And the ruler of the synagogue — Instead of joining in acknowledgments of the divine power and goodness, displayed in this gracious action of our Lord; answered — The woman’s praises, with indignation — As if Christ had committed some heinous crime in healing this poor woman! He endeavoured, however, to disguise his wrath under the form of piety and zeal; as if he was angry only because the cure was wrought on the sabbath day; saying unto the people, There are six days, &c., in them therefore come and be healed — See how light he makes of the miracles which Christ wrought, as if they were things of course, which might be done by any one any day of the week. One would have thought, that the extraordinary miracle now wrought might have been sufficient to convince him that Jesus was a divinely-commissioned teacher, who spoke and acted by authority from God; and that the circumstance of the miracle’s being done on the sabbath day could not have served to enable him to evade the conviction. But what light can shine so clearly or strongly against which a spirit of bigotry and enmity to Christ, and his gospel, will not serve to shut men’s eyes? Never was such honour done to the synagogue of which he was ruler, as Christ had now done to it; and yet he had indignation at it! The Lord then answered him, Thou hypocrite, &c. — Our Lord gives him this appellation, because the real motive of his speaking was envy, not (as he pretended) pure zeal for the glory of God. Ought not this woman — Ought not any human creature, which is far better than an ox or an ass: much more this daughter of Abraham — Probably in a spiritual as well as a natural sense; to be loosed? Thus the Lord soon put this hypocritical ruler to silence, by placing the action with which he found fault in the light of their own avowed practice. They loosed and led their cattle on the sabbath to water, and thought the mercy of the work justified them in so doing. He, by uttering a word only, had loosed a woman, a reasonable creature, and a daughter of Abraham, that had been bound with an incurable distemper, not for a single day, but so long a time as eighteen years. Without doubt the far greater mercy of this and the other godlike works which Jesus did, justified his performing them on the sabbath day, as the ruler might easily have seen, had he not been wholly blinded by his superstition. When he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed, &c. — The folly even of the men of learning among the Jews, conspicuous in this and some other instances mentioned in the gospels, shows the malignant nature of superstition. It is capable of extinguishing reason, of banishing compassion, and of eradicating the most essential principles and feelings of the human mind.

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

13:14 not on the Sabbath: Rabbis debated whether to give medical help on the Sabbath and decided it was acceptable only in cases of extreme emergency.

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

Luk 13:14. Τῷ ὄχλῳ, to the multitude) But all the while he obliquely aimed at Jesus. [For doubtless the benefit of the healing came to the woman without her expecting it.—V. g.]—ἕξ, six) quite many enough.

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

Luk 13:14 . But religious propriety in the person of the ruler of the synagogue is once more shocked: it is a Sabbath cure. ἔλεγε τῷ ὄχλῳ : He spoke to the audience at Jesus plausibly enough; yet, as so often in cases of religious zeal, from mixed motives. Christ’s power and the woman’s praise annoyed him.

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

A lively image of hypocrisy, and reward thereof.

One of the rulers of the Synagogue, for it appeareth by Mark 5:22 and Acts 13:15 that there were many rulers of the Synagogue.

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

with indignation--not so much at the sabbath violation as at the glorification of Christ. (Compare Mat 21:15) [TRENCH].

said to the people--"Not daring directly to find fault with the Lord, he seeks circuitously to reach Him through the people, who were more under his influence, and whom he feared less" [TRENCH].

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

(14) And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation.—The traditional law for the work of the Jewish physician was that he might act in his calling in cases of emergency, life and death cases, but not in chronic diseases, such as this. This law the ruler of the synagogue wished to impose as a check upon the work of the Healer here.

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

14. ruler of the synagogue] See Luk_8:41.

with indignation] The same strong word—implying a personal resentment—is used in Mat_20:24; Mat_26:8.

on the sabbath day] See on Luk_6:2.

in which men ought to work] Exo_20:9.

in them therefore come and be healed] As though the reception of divine grace were Sabbath-breaking toil! Few remarks of the opponents of our Lord were so transparently illogical and hypocritical as this. It was meanly indirect because it was aimed at Jesus, though the man is too much in awe to address it to Him, and the implied notion that it was a crime to allow oneself to be healed on the Sabbath day springs from an abyss of Pharisaic falsity which could hardly have been conceived. It was the underhand ignorance and insolence, as well as the gross insincerity of the remark, which called forth a reproof exceptionally severe.

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.

And the ruler of the synagogue,.... For there never was but one in a synagogue, whatever some writers have observed to the contrary; See Gill on Mat 9:18 the Ethiopic version reads, "the chief priests", but wrongly; these dwelt at Jerusalem, and in Galilee:

answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day; his indignation was at Christ, and the miracle he had wrought, being filled with envy at the honour it would bring unto him; though he covered it under pretence of its being a violation of the sabbath, and that it ought not to have been done on such a day, and in such a place, which were appropriated not to servile works, but to religious worship;

and said unto the people; over whom he had an authority, and who stood in awe of him, because of his office and dignity; and not daring to attack Christ himself, at least not directly, though he struck at him through the people, whose doctrine and miracles were so extraordinary.

There are six days which men ought to work, in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day; referring to the fourth command: but this observation and reproof were impertinent and needless, for the people did not come to be healed; for ought appears, the cure was unthought of and unexpected; nor was healing, especially as performed by Christ, by a word and a touch, a servile work, and therefore could not be any breach of the law referred to. The Ethiopic version reads, "is there not a sixth day?----come on that day"; the day before the sabbath.

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

14 And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.

Ver. 14. Answered with indignation] He that will be angry and not sin must be angry at nothing but at sin.

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.

Answered with indignation, because ... - He considered this a violation of the Sabbath, doing work contrary to the fourth commandment. If he had reasoned aright, he would have seen that he who could perform such a miracle could not be a violator of the law of God. From this conduct of the ruler we learn:

That people are often opposed to good being done, because it is not done “in their own way” and “according to their own views.” That they are more apt to look at what they consider a violation of the law in others, than at the good which others may do. That this opposition is manifested not only against those who do good, but also against those who are “benefited.” The ruler of the synagogue seemed particularly indignant that “the people” would come to Christ to be healed. That this conduct is often the result of envy. In this case it was rather hatred that the people should follow Christ instead of the Jewish rulers, and therefore envy at the popularity of Jesus, than any real regard for religion. That opposition to the work of Jesus may put on the appearance of great professed regard for religion. Many people oppose revivals, missions, Bible societies, and Sunday-schools - strange as it may seem - “from professed regard to the purity of religion.” They, like the ruler here, have formed their notions of religion as consisting in something “very different from doing good,” and they oppose those who are attempting to spread the gospel throughout the world.

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

The president of the synagogue, when he saw the woman, who before crept on the ground, now raised by the touch of Christ, and hearing the mandate of God, was filled with envy, and decried the miracle, apparently through solicitude for keeping the sabbath. But the truth is, he would rather see the poor woman bent to the earth like a beast, than see Christ glorified by healing her. (St. Cyril in St. Thomas Aquinas)

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).

Answered here signifies no more than, he spake, as in a multitude of other places in the Gospels. The Jews were both very superstitious and very uneven as to the sanctification of the sabbaths: superstitious, because they would not do many things which by God’s law they might do, such as applying means to heal the sick, defending themselves against enemies, &c. Uneven, because they would do divers things of equal bodily labour with those things which they pretend to scruple, one of which we shall hear our Saviour by and by instancing in. This ruler studied to defame him before the people. His pretence was, this was a work, and such a work as might be done in the six days. Let us hear how our Saviour defends himself.

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

14. The ruler of the synagogue—Who is so great as your little great man, who imitates, of course, the prejudices and follies of his superiors? This official had not dared, for reasons which may appear, to withhold from Jesus the pulpit or the synagogue for preaching. But he understands that the doctors and lawyers maintain that for Jesus to perform miracles on the Sabbath is a desecration of that holy day. He will therefore protest, in the name of the decalogue, against such work.

Answered—It is not clear to what he gave answer; but it was most probably to the woman’s praise to God for her release from Satan.

With indignation—Which he meant to have considered a holy indignation, prompted by his soul, for God and Moses.

Said unto the people—He has not the courage to face Jesus. He therefore falls foul of the innocent congregation, because he dare berate them, being, as he is, ruler of the synagogue, while they are only the synagogue itself.

There are six days—The man quotes, without intending a verbal exactness, a very important item in the fourth commandment; namely, that men should work six days, and that that should be the limit of their week’s work.

Come and be healed—The coming to the synagogue was Sabbath duty; but the being healed was no work which the people or the woman had done. This man, then, when he whips the people, means the blow for Jesus. He commits the contradiction of supposing that the miracle is really and divinely performed, but wicked on the Sabbath; as if God was breaking his own Sabbath and must be prevented by the people.

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

And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day. The people, as usual, were stirred to enthusiasm by this glorious act of power and mercy. Afraid, before the congregation of the synagogue, to attack the Master personally, the "ruler," no doubt influenced by members of the Pharisee party who were present, at. tempted to represent the great Physician as a deliberate scorner of the sacred Law. The sabbath regulations at this time were excessively burdensome and childishly rigorous. The Law, as expounded in the schools of the rabbis, allowed physicians to act in cases of emergency, but not in chronic diseases such as this. How deep an interest must such a memory of the Master"s as this sabbath day"s healing have had for that beloved physician who has given his name to these memoirs we call the Third Gospel! Often in later years, in Syrian Antioch, in the great cities of Italy and Greece, would he, as he plied his blessed craft among the sick on the sabbath day, be attacked by rigid Jews as one who profaned the day. To such would he relate this incident, and draw his lessons of mercy and of love.

Vers. 14-16. Suggestions from the synagogue.

The fact that this work of our Lord (see previous homily) was wrought in a synagogue on the sabbath day, and that it led to an outburst of fanaticism on the part of the ruler, which was followed by the severe rebuke of Christ, may suggest to us

I THAT EARNEST SEEKERS AT THE SANCTUARY MAY FIND MORE THAN THEY SEEK. We may class this woman amongst the earnest seekers; for the fact that, with such a bodily infirmity as hers, she was found in her place in the house of God is evidence of her devotion. She went there, we may assume, to seek the ordinary spiritual refreshment and strength which are to be found in worship, in drawing near to God and in learning his will. She found this as usual, and a great deal more; she found immediate and complete restoration from her old complaint; she found a new life before her; she found a new Teacher, a Lord of love and power, in whose Person and in whose ministry God was most graciously manifesting himself to her. If we go to the sanctuary in an entirely unspiritual mood, with no hunger of soul in us, we shall probably come empty away; but if we go there to worship God and to inquire of his will, desirous of offering to him the service he can accept, and to gain from him the blessing he is willing to impart, then is it not only possible, but likely, that we may secure more than we seek. God will manifest himself to us in ways we did not anticipate; will show us the path we had never seen before; will take away the burden we thought we should bring home on our heart; will fill us with the peace or the hope that passes all our understanding; will open to us gates of wisdom or joy we never thought to enter.

II THAT NOTHING BETTER BEFITS THE DAY OF THE LORD than doing the distinctive work of the Lord. Jesus Christ completely disposed of the carping and censorious criticism of the ruler. If it was right, on the sabbath day, to discharge a kindly office of no very great value and at some considerable trouble to a brute beast, how much more must it be right to render an invaluable service, by the momentary exercise of a strong will, to a poor suffering sister-woman who was one of the children of Abraham, and one of the people of God? And how can we better spend the hours which are sacred, not only to bodily rest, but to spiritual advancement, than by doing work which is peculiarly and emphatically Divine by helping the helpless; by relieving the suffering; by enriching the poor; by enlightening those who are in darkness; by extricating those who are in trouble; by lifting up them that are bowed down? When, on the sabbath day, we forget our own exertions in our earnest desire to comfort, or to relieve, or to deliver, we may be quite sure that the Lord of the sabbath will not remember them against us, but only to say to us, "Well done.

III THAT A FORMAL PIETY WILL NOT PRESERVE US FROM THE SADDEST SINS. This ruler was probably regarded as a very devout man, because his ceremonialism was complete. But his routine observances did not save him from making a cowardly, because indirect, attack upon a beneficent Healer; nor from committing an act of gross inhumanity assailing the woman he should have been the first to rejoice with; nor from falling into an utter misconception of the mind of God, thinking that evil which was divinely good. We may hold high positions in the Church of Christ, may habitually take very sacred words into our lips, may flash out into great indignation against supposed religious enormities, and yet may be obnoxious to the severe rebuke of the final Judge, and may stand quite outside and even far off the kingdom of heaven. Let us be sure of our own position before we undertake the office of the accuser; let us beware lest over our outward righteousness Divine Truth will at last inscribe that terrible word "hypocrisy." Formal piety proves nothing; the only thing we can he sure about is the love of God in the heart manifesting itself in the love of men. C.

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

Christ’s defense against the ruler of the synagogue:

v. 14. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath-day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work; in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath-day.

v. 15. The Lord then answered him and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?

v. 16. And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath-day?

v. 17. And when He had said these things, all His adversaries were ashamed; and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.

How deeply ingrained was the idea of mechanical Sabbath observance in the mind of the average Jewish teacher is evident from this incident. The ruler of the synagogue became highly indignant, not because Jesus had healed the woman, but because He had done so on the Sabbath. He had too much respect for Christ’s ability to defend Himself to attack Him directly, so he spoke to the audience, striking indirectly at Jesus, rebuking them sharply for bringing any sick people to be healed on the Sabbath; for there were six days on which they could attend to such work. It sounded as though the ruler of the synagogue wanted to prevent the people from tempting Jesus to break the Sabbath. But the Lord (called so with a purpose, as the Lord of the Sabbath) retorted to this condemnation with special force, calling the ruler of the synagogue and all those that felt as he did about the matter, hypocrites, cheap, dissembling actors. What about their own case? They loosed their dumb beasts from the manger on the Sabbath; they even led them forth to water; they gave them to drink, probably not by carrying the water to them, since the Jewish elders had forbidden that, but at least by drawing the water from the well. Mark the contrast: A daughter of Abraham on the one hand, an ox and an ass on the other; the one bound by Satan for eighteen years, the others suffering from thirst merely for a few hours. The argument of Jesus suffered no gainsaying. The elders of the Jews, though not convinced, were confounded and ashamed, brought to shame before the audience; and all the people present were delighted over all the admirable, wonderful things that were performed by the Lord. Note: To this day it is hypocrisy if sanctity is attached to mere external matters, as, that the so-called Sabbath is kept with Puritan strictness, by the enforcement of blue-laws, while many important, necessary things, as benevolence to the poor, miserable, and needy, are omitted. "Therefore learn here from Christ what the true understanding of the Sabbath is, and how we must maintain the distinction between the outward use of the Sabbath, so far as the time, hour, and place is concerned, and the necessary works of love which God demands of us at all times and in all places; that we should know that the Sabbath was ordained for the sake of man, and not man for the sake of the Sabbath, Mar 2:27, and thus man is the lord of the Sabbath, and is to use it for his own and his neighbor’s necessity, thus being enabled to keep this and other commandments of God without hindrance. For the right understanding of the Third Commandment is really this, that we use the Sabbath to hear and learn the Word of God, how we may keep all other commandments both toward God and our neighbor and help others to this end through love."

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

14. ὁ ἀρχισυνάγωγος. See Luk 8:41.

ἀγανακτῶν. The same strong word—implying a personal resentment—is used in Mat 20:24; Mat 26:8.

-τῷ σαββάτῳ. See on Luk 6:2.

ἐν αἷς δεῖ ἐργάζεσθαι. Exo 20:9.

ἐν αὐταῖς οὖν ἐρχόμενοι θεραπεύεσθε. As though the reception of divine grace were Sabbath-breaking toil! Few remarks of the opponents of our Lord were so transparently illogical and hypocritical as this. It was meanly indirect because it was aimed at Jesus, though the man is too much in awe to address it to Him, and the implied notion that it was a crime to allow oneself to be healed on the Sabbath day springs from an abyss of Pharisaic falsity which could hardly have been conceived. It was the underhand ignorance and insolence, as well as the gross insincerity of the remark, which called forth a reproof exceptionally severe.

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.

14.] The ruler speaks not either to Jesus or to the woman; but covertly and cowardly, to the multitude. Stier notices the self-stultification of this speech, in making θεραπεύεσθαι, a reception of divine grace and help, a species of ἐργάζεσθαι.

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

14. ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ ἀρχισυνάγωγος. Comp. 8:41. No one had spoken to him, but he replies to what had been done. He indirectly censures the act of Jesus by addressing the people as represented by the woman.

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