Luke 13:30

SALVATION OF THE JEWS

Luk 13:30. “Behold, the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.” The Jews had long stood at the front of the world. Because they rejected Christ they were relegated to the rear, the Gentiles coming to the front, where they are today. Yet we see from this, and in innumerable promises in both Testaments, that the fallen children of Abraham are coming back into the kingdom of God, to take their place as in days of yore; however, these promises are restricted to the elect few, as in the case of the Gentiles. The prophetic eye of Jesus, looking through the rolling centuries, saw the desolation of the land, the destruction of that generation, the survival of His race, the final return of the elect, restoration of the land, and the conversion of His people down at the end of the Gentile age; as here He says that the Jews will be the last to receive the gospel, and (Ezekiel 37) that they will be gathered back in their unregenerate state — i.e., “valley of dry bones” — involving the conclusion that the elect children of Abraham will return to the Holy Land before there is a general conversion of them to Christianity, which will be the last great evangelistic work of the Gospel Age. The universal commotion among the Jews, and their rapid return to the Holy Land despite the most formidable difficulties, is a certain prophetic omen that the end of all things is nigh. Earth and hell are combined to prevent the return of the Jews, the Mohammedan-Turkish Government doing everything in her power to keep them out, passing laws forbidding their citizenization in that country, and permitting them only to visit it as sojourners thirty days, under the most rigid and tyrannical restrictions. This law passed the Porte, A. D. 1874, when there were only about five thousand Jews in all the Holy Land. Despite all their tyrannical restrictions, there are now two hundred thousand, and coming rapidly all the time. I especially investigated this subject, and have it from the most reliable sources. It is not much known, as the Jews have to keep the matter secret. In Jerusalem alone there are fifty-five thousand Jews, one-half of the whole population; besides, they have great, growing, and flourishing colonies at Janneh, Safed (Sah-fed, old Chorazin), Nazareth, Shechem, Caesarea, Joppa, Hebron, Bethlehem, Ekron, Ashdod, Tiberias, and many other places. The attention of all Christendom is now being called to the consideration of restoring to the Jews their own country, which God gave them, and it is going to be done very soon. If you will attend the “wailing of the Jews” without the temple, at the west end (as it is a penalty of death for a Jew to put his foot inside the holy Temple Campus), and hear their weeping and wailing, down on their knees, kissing the great stones which Solomon put in the temple, reading from their Hebrew Bible the promises of God to hear their cries from every land of their dispersion and gather them back to their holy land and city, methinks you would conclude that the answer is nigh. I know not when, in all my life, I have so vividly realized the presence of God as when I attended those wailings. I verily felt that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was listening to the cry of His unfortunate children, and do believe that the answer is now coming from Heaven for the gathering of Israel from every land and nation. How wonderfully the Jews make that country bud and blossom, and again bend beneath the delicious fruits and luxurious crops of which we read in the Bible, sounding in our ears like paradoxes!

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 13:30. Ἰδοὺ εἰσὶν—καί εἰσι, behold, there are—and there are) The present with emphasis, in antithesis to the future: Luk 13:29; Luk 13:24.—εἰσὶν ἔσχατοι, there are last) This has reference to Luk 13:28-29. The absence of the article makes the whole assertion in the sentence indefinite, and denotes that there is to be an interchange in the relative positions of some, though not of all, of the first and of the last, not that there is to be an account taken of both in the mass without discrimination: For those coming from the four quarters of the world shall recline at the banquet with the fathers and the prophets, not the latter with them (the former). See Mat 8:11.—εἰσὶ πρῶτοι, there are first) This is to be referred to Luk 13:24, et seqq.

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

Luk_13:30. Comp. on Mat_19:30; Mat_20:16.

εἰσίν] (before the establishment of the kingdom; ἔσονται) after it, in the kingdom.

ἔσχατοι] i.e. those who have not become believers till very late (as such, born heathens, Luk_13:29);

ἔσονται πρῶτοι] Members of the first rank in the kingdom of Messiah. The originality of this maxim, uttered in several forms and in various connections, is to be claimed exclusively for no particular place.

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 13:30 . The same remark applies to this saying. As it stands here it refers to Jews as the first who become last, and to Gentiles as the last who become first, and the distinction between first and last is not one of degree, but absolute = within and without.

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

Verse 30. There are last which shall be first] See Clarke on Mt 19:30.

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

(30) And, behold, there are last . . .—See Note on Mat_19:30. In point of time, it may be noticed, this is the first utterance of the great law that God’s judgment reverses man’s. When it was uttered in reference to the young ruler, it was but a fresh application of the wider law. Here the application is primarily national. Israel had been the first of nations, but it should become, in its outward fortunes, the last, and the heathen who had been “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph_2:12) should gain the high pre-eminence of being the heirs of the kingdom. The individual application of the words grows naturally, however, out of the national.

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

30. And, behold] The phrase sometimes implies ‘strange as you may think it.’ It occurs 23 times in St Matthew , 16 in St Luke; but not in St Mark.

there are last which shall be first] Our Lord used this proverbial expression more than once. Mat_19:30. It had, besides its universal truthfulness, a special bearing on His own time. “The publicans and the harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you,” Mat_21:31. “The Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness,” Rom_9:30.

“There above (on earth)

How many hold themselves for mighty kings,

Who here like swine shall wallow in the mire,

Leaving behind them horrible dispraise.”

Dante, Inferno.

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 same day there came certain of the Pharisees,.... Who dwelt in Galilee, for they were in all parts of the country: these being nettled and filled with indignation at Christ, because of the parables he had that day delivered, the miracles he had wrought, and the several awful and striking things which dropped from him, and which they knew respected them; contrived to get rid of him, by frightening him with a design of Herod's, to take away his life, should he continue there: for this seems to be rather a stratagem of theirs, than of Herod's; though it may he, that Herod might take this method, and make use of these men in this way, to terrify him; fearing to lay hold on him, and put him to death; partly because of the people, and partly because of the remaining uneasiness and terror of his mind, for taking off the head of John the Baptist:

saying, get thee out and depart hence; in all haste, as soon as possible:

for Herod will kill thee: he is resolved upon it, he has formed a design, and will quickly take methods to execute it. This was Herod the tetrarch, of Galilee; from whence we learn, that Christ was as yet in Galilee, though he was journeying towards Jerusalem, Luk 13:22 for Herod's jurisdiction reached no further than Galilee: this was either a device of Herod's, or of the Pharisees, or of both, to get rid of Christ in the easiest manner.

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

30 And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.

Ver. 30. See Mat 19:30; Mat 20:16; Mar 10:31.

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.

This is a sentence which our Saviour often made use of, and not always to the same purpose. See Poole on "Mat 19:30". See Poole on "Mat 20:16". See Poole on "Mar 10:31". As to the sense of them here, it is plain. Our Saviour here foretells the conversion of the Gentiles; but yet I do not take the Gentiles to be all who are intended under the notion of the last, but divers others also. Men who, both in their opinion of themselves, and in reality with respect to privilege, are the first, whether in respect of gifts, or office, or the means of grace, or profession, will many of them be the last, that is, furthest off from the kingdom of God; and many who are the last, upon these accounts will in the day of judgment be first, that is, appear so, as having more of the favour of God, and be so, taken to heaven, when the others shall be cast to hell, Mat 11:20-24.

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

30. Last… first—The Gentiles, which were last, have become first; the reverse has been the history of the Jews. And so in the following chapters (14-16) the Pharisees and Publicans are reversed from first to last.

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

And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last. This expression, which apparently was more than once used by the Lord, in this place clearly has a historical reference, and sadly predicts the rejection of Israel, not only in this present world. "There above (on earth) How many hold themselves for mighty kings, Who here like swine shall wallow in the mire, Leaving behind them horrible dispraise! (Dante, "Inferno.")

Vers. 31-35. The message of Jesus to Herod Antipas, and the lament over the loved city of Jerusalem, the destined place of his own death.

The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. Very many of the older authorities read here, instead of "tile same day," "in that very hour." This incident connected with Herod Antipas, which is only related by St. Luke, not improbably was communicated to Luke and Paul by Manaen, who was intimately connected with that prince, and who was a prominent member of the primitive Church of Antioch in those days when Paul was beginning his work for the cause. (see Act_13:1) This curious message probably emanated from Herod and Herodias. The tetrarch was disturbed and uneasy at the Lord"s continued presence in his dominions, and the crowds who thronged to hear the great Teacher occasioned the jealous and timorous prince grave disquietude. Herod shrank from laying hands on him, though, for the memory of the murdered friend of Jesus was a terrible one, we know, to the superstitious tetrarch, and he dreaded being forced into a repetition of the judicial murder of John the Baptist. It is likely enough that the enemies of the Lord were now anxious for him to go to Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, where he would be in the power of the Sadducean hierarchy, and away from the protection of the Galilaean multitudes, with whom his influence was still very great. The Pharisees, who as a party hated the Master, willingly entered into the design, and under the mask of a pretended friendship warned him of Herod"s intentions.

Vers. 31-35. The composure and the emotion of Jesus.

I THE COMPOSURE IN THE FACE OF A MESSAGE WHICH MIGHT HAVE AGITATED. The message may have been a concoction of the Pharisees, who, wishing to have him removed from the district, used the name of Herod to alarm him; or it may have been inspired by Herod himself, who, although desiring to see Jesus, was jealous of his popularity, and was fearful lest in some way an uproar might be excited among the people. The latter seems the more likely supposition. The circumstance that Jesus sends his reply to the king, and that in so doing he singles him out as crafty and subtle, trying to do by intrigue what he could not do openly fox gives weight to the view that, in saying what is recorded, certain of the Pharisees obeyed the command of the human tyrant. Be that as it may, the message was calculated to disturb the mind with secret terrors. For, of all the persons who pass before us in the life of our Lord, none was more capable of doing "the hellish thing" by mean ways than this petty ruler of Peraea. His character has been thus described: "He was false to his religion, false to his nation, false to his friends, false to his brethren, false to his wife the meanest thing the world had ever seen." What could not such a man do? Would it not be well at once to take the hint, "Get thee out and depart thence"? But how perfectly calm is Jesus! No word like that could throw his soul off from its centre. The only phrase expressive of sheer scorn and contempt which ever fell from his lips belongs to this occasion (ver. 32). "Go tell that fox that human embodiment of deceit and cunning shall take my time; he cannot frighten me; he cannot hasten me. My work in his country will be done. I must work to-day, and to-morrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem." Notice some characteristic points in this reply.

1. The three days. Is it a definite space of time that is marked out? If so, does it point to the remaining portion of the Galilaean ministry? or to the time which would elapse before his departure from Herod"s territory? I incline to the latter view. But it may be better to accept the saying as an intimation that, deliberately and without hurry, he would accomplish his task to-day nor to-morrow, but on a third day he would be perfected, or finished.

2. The clause, it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. " Ah! there is a sad irony in it. "Herod kill me here? No; I must reach the holy city. That is the slaughter-house of the prophets. It would never do that I, the Prophet of Galilee, should perish elsewhere." Sublime, serene, we have the sentences, "Behold, I cast out devils, and do cures" (ver. 32); "I must walk to-day and to-morrow, and the day following" (ver. 33). A good man"s mission is a concern of God; God will take care of it and of him, so far as he is essential to it. It may be said that no person is indispensable; yet, to a certain extent, persons are indispensable. And every one who is consciously striving after the best and noblest, and who is giving himself to some labour of love, may be sure that there is a Divinity hedging him around through which no fox can break. The Herods of the world, with all their scheming, cannot shorten the times of God. As he wills, and while he wills, we must walk. Until he wills that we walk no longer, we are immortal. Reposing in his heavenly Father"s love, straitened until his baptism of blood is accomplished, "journeying towards Jerusalem," the Christ of the Eternal is lifted above the region of selfish fears. Tyrant cannot harm him, threat cannot ruffle him: "Walk and work to-day and tomorrow, and a third day to boot, I must and shall.

II BUT OBSERVE HOW AND WHY THE EMOTION OF "THAT SAME HOUR" BURSTS FORTH. These Pharisees could not scare him from his purpose, but they touched the fountain of a Divine sensibility in his breast. And now, as at a later stage, a cry of intense sorrow escapes him the sorrow of wounded, but agonizing love. The feeling of patriotism combines with the tenderness of Saviour-longing in the wail, more than wail, which begins (vers. 34, 35), "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent to thee!" The cry naturally follows the sadly ironical reference to Jerusalem as the slaughter-house of tile prophets! What are the thoughts which fill the mind of Christ as he utters it?

1. The conscious opposition between a love that would save and an obstinate dulness that will not be saved. Note the figure, so often employed in the Psalms and prophetical books of the Old Testamerit the wings stretched out for the shelter and warmth, the peace and safety, of the brood. (see Deu_32:11, Deu_32:12) "How often," says the Lord Jesus (ver. 34), "would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings, and ye would not!" Is this, "How often would I!" merely a reference to previous visits to the capital and ministrations in it? Nay, it is the Lord of the prophets who is speaking; the allusion, in its full meaning, is to the often-made effort to gather the children together through the prophets whom Jerusalem killed, the messengers whom Jerusalem stoned. It is the truth afterwards brought out in the parable of the wicked husbandmen. (see Lu 20) The protest is wrung from the patient, seeking, yet often baffled will to save and bless. It is the protest which reverberates through infinite space concerning men the protest whose subject-matter is, slighted overtures, unheeded calls, grace resisted, gifts sent away, knocks heard yet doors unopened; the "I would" of God defied by the "I will not" of men.

2. The knowledge of opportunity for ever gone. "If thou hadst known even in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." This is spoken on the same day, at the same hour, as that in which the warnings connected with the entering in at the strait gate were uttered. Observe the connection with ver. 25. Solemn, awful words. The things were open to the eyes during the day, the time of Divine visitation; then the eye would not regard them. It was fixed on other things the black dust of earthly care, or the glittering dust of earthly vanity. Now the story is reversed. The eye would fain behold. Oh for a day of the Son of man! Oh for the moments that have been thrown away! But the Master of the house has risen up, and has shut to the door. The vision now (ver. 35) is a desolate house a house left to itself, God-forsaken. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, all thy palaces swallowed up, thy strongholds destroyed, thy solemn feasts and sabbaths forgotten, thine altar cast off, thy sanctuary abhorred, thy gates sunk, thy bars broken; thou that wast called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth, abandoned, as it might seem, by him who sought to gather thee, and thou wouldst not I, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, bleak, bare, stripped! dost thou not sit in thy lonely place among the silent lonely hills, spreading forth thy hands, but there is none to comfort thee; yet ever in thy desolation witnessing, " The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandments "?" Jesus weeps! My soul, are these tears wept over thee? Dost thou know the things that belong to thy peace? Hast thou received the One who seeks to gather thee, and whose goodness and severity urge thee to repentance? O my soul, remember that he who shed tears, from the same fountain of love and mercy shed blood also. Let the tears of compassion and remonstrance send thee to the blood of cleansing. "Foul, I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Saviour, or I die.

First and last.

There are many beside those to whom these words were first applied by Jesus Christ to whom they are applicable enough. They were originally intended to denote the positions of

I THE JEW AND THE GENTILE. The Jew, who prided himself on being the first favourite of Heaven, was to become the very last in God"s esteem; he was to bear the penalty due to the guilty race that "knew not the day of its visitation," but imbrued its hands in the blood of its own Messiah. The scenes witnessed in the destruction of Jerusalem are commentary enough on these words of Christ. But this truth has a far wider meaning; it is continually receiving illumination and illustration. It applies to

II THE OUTWARDLY CORRECT AND THE ILL-BEHAVED. The Pharisee of every age and land is first in his own esteem, but he stands, in sullen refusal, far off the kingdom, while "the publican and the sinner" are found at the feet of Christ, asking for the way of life, for the waters of cleansing, for the mercy of God,

III THE LEARNED AND THE IGNORANT; the astute and the simpleminded. Still we ask, "Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world?" Still may we, after the Master himself, give God thanks that he has "hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes." Human learning, in its unholy and foolish pride, still closes its ear to the voice that speaks from heaven. Lowly minded simplicity still listens to the truth and enters the open gate of the kingdom of God.

IV THE PRIVILEGED AND THE UNPRIVILEGED. The children of privilege may be said to be among "the first." We congratulate them sincerely and rightly enough; yet are they too often found among the last to serve and to shine. For they build upon their privileges, or they reckon confidently on turning them some day to account, and they fail to use them as they should; and the end of their presumption is indifference, hardness of heart, insensibility, death. The first has become the last, On the other hand, the ear that never before heard "the music of the gospel" is ravished by the sound of it; the heart that never knew of the grace of God In,jesus Christ is touched by the sweet story of a Saviour"s dying love, and is won to penitence and faith and purity; the last is first. Let presumption everywhere tremble; it stands on perilous ground. Again and again is it made to humble itself in the dust, while simplicity of spirit is lifted up by the hand of God. C.

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

But there are last - Many of the Gentiles who were latest called, shall be most highly rewarded; and many of the Jews who were first called, shall have no reward at all. Matt. xix, 30.

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

30. The last shall be first. See notes on Matt. 20:16.

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.

30. καὶ ἰδού. The phrase sometimes implies ‘strange as you may think it.’ It occurs 23 times in St Matthew , 16 in St Luke; but not in St Mark.

εἰσὶν ἔσχατοι οἳ ἔσονται πρῶτοι. Our Lord used this proverbial expression more than once. Mat 19:30. It had, besides its universal truthfulness, a special bearing on His own time. “The publicans and the harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you,” Mat 21:31. “The Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness,” Rom 9:30.

“There above (on earth)

How many hold themselves for mighty kings,

Who here like swine shall wallow in the mire,

Leaving behind them horrible dispraise.”

DANTE, Inferno.

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.

30.] As the words here stand—somewhat different from those in Mat 20:16—they seem to be a prophetic declaration of what shall be in the course of the ingathering of these guests;—viz. that some who were the first, or among the first to believe, shall fall from their high place, and vice versa. This former has, as Stier notices (iii. 200), been remarkably the case with the Oriental Churches, which were the first founded and flourishing:—and, we may add, with the mother Church of Jerusalem, which has declined, while her Gentile offsets have flourished.

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

30. εἰσὶν ἔσχατοι … εἰσὶν πρῶτοι. There are some of each class who will be transferred to the other. Mat 20:16 we have ἔσονται οἱ ἔσχατοι πρῶτοι καὶ οἱ πρῶτοι ἔσχατοι. From that passage coupled with Mat 19:30 = Mar 10:31 we infer that this was a saying which Jesus uttered more than once. But here only is it introduced with καὶ ἰδού, of which Lk. is so fond (1:20, 31, 36, 5:12, 7:12, 37, etc.), and for which Mt. and Mk. have πολλοὶ δέ. The practical answer to the question in ver. 23 remains, “Whatever be the number of those who are in the way of salvation, that which concerns you is, that you should without delay secure a place among them.”

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