Luke 13:5

Luk 13:5. Ἀπολεῖσθε, ye shall perish) This actually took place in the siege and destruction of the city.

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

Verse 5. Ye shall all likewise perish.] ωσαυτως, ομοιως, In a like way, in the same manner. This prediction of our Lord was literally fulfilled. When the city was taken by the Romans, multitudes of the priests, c., who were going on with their sacrifices, were slain, and their blood mingled with the blood of their victims and multitudes were buried under the ruins of the walls, houses, and temple. See Josephus, War, b. vi. ch. iv., v., vi.; and see the notes on Matt. 24.

It is very wrong to suppose that those who suffer by the sword, or by natural accidents, are the most culpable before God. An adequate punishment for sin cannot be inflicted in this world: what God does here, in this way, is in general:

1st, through mercy, to alarm others;

2, to show his hatred to sin;

3, to preserve in men's minds a proper sense of his providence and justice; and

4, to give sinners, in one or two particular instances, a general specimen of the punishment that awaits all the perseveringly impenitent.

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

5. ye shall all likewise perish] The readings of the word ‘likewise’ vary between ‘homoios’ and ‘hosautos;’ but no distinct difference of meaning between the two words can be established, unless the latter be rather stronger, ‘in the very same way.’ Here again the actual incidents of the siege of Jerusalem—the deaths of many under the falling ruins of the city (Jos. B. J. vi. 9, vii. 1)—are the directest comment on our Lord’s words which yet bear the wider significance of the warning in Rom_2:1-11 r.

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.

I tell you, nay,.... I affirm it, and you may depend upon it, they were not greater sinners than others: though such a melancholy accident befell them, not without the providence of God:

but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish; or perish in the same manner; that is, shall be buried under the ruins of the city and temple of Jerusalem, when one stone should not be left upon another; just as these eighteen men were buried under the ruins of the tower of Siloam, of which it was a pledge and emblem; and accordingly great numbers of them did perish in the temple, and were buried under the ruins of it (d).

(d) Joseph. de Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 4.

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

5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Ver. 5. But except ye repent] Except the best of you all repent more and more when ye see the examples of God’s wrath, &c. God would not have the wounds of godly sorrow so healed up in his own children, but that they should bleed afresh upon every good occasion. De aliorum plagis faciamus medicamenta vulneribus nostris. Make best use of others’ miseries.

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.

I tell you, Nay - It is improper to suppose that those on whom heavy judgments fall in this world are the worst of people. This is not a world of retribution. Often the most wicked are suffered to prosper here, and their punishment is reserved for another world; while the righteous are called to suffer much, and “appear” to be under the sore displeasure of God, Ps. 73. This only we know, that the wicked will not always escape; that God is just; and that none who do suffer here or hereafter, suffer more than they deserve. In the future world, all that seems to be unequal here will be made equal and plain.

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

Unless you do penance, &c. The Jews did not penance; and therefore, forty years after our Lord’s Passion, the Romans came, and beginning with Galilee, destroyed this impious nation to its roots, and polluted not only the court of the temple, whither the sacrifices were carried, but the inner sanctuary, with human blood. (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).

Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. The words were indeed prophetic to the letter. Thousands of Jews perished in the last terrible war by the swords of the Roman legionaries, like the Galilaeans of ver. 1; not a few met their death in the capital among the ruins of the burning fallen houses. We know that Jerusalem in its entirety was destroyed, and the loss of life in the siege, and especially in its dread closing scenes, was simply incalculable. Within forty years all this happened.

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

3, 5. μετανοῆτε … ὁμοίως … μετανοήσητε … ὡσαύτως. The MSS. vary between these words, which makes it probable that different words were used in each text.

5. πάντες ὡσαύτως ἀπολεῖσθε. The readings of the word ‘likewise’ vary between ὁμοίως and ὡσαύτως; but no distinct difference of meaning between the two words can be established, unless the latter be rather stronger, ‘in the very same way.’ Here again the actual incidents of the siege of Jerusalem—the deaths of many under the falling ruins of the city (Jos. B. J. VI. 9, VII. 1)—are the directest comment on our Lord’s words which yet bear the wider significance of the warning in Rom 2:1-11. “Le carnage,” says Godet, “dû au glaive de Pilate, n’est que le prélude de celui que l’armée romaine consommera bientôt dans toute la Terre-Sainte.” He adds, that 40 years later, all that remained of the Galilean people, reunited in the Temple, was expiating under the blows of Titus the national impenitence. If we may judge from the MSS. the language of the two parallel questions (Luk 13:3-4) seems to have been purposely varied.

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.

5.] Our Lord introduces this incident as shewing that whether the band of man or (so called) accidents, lead to inflictions of this kind, it is in fact but one Hand which doeth it all—Amo 3:6. There is also a transference from the Galilæans—a despised people—to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, on whom the fulness of God’s wrath was to be poured out in case of impenitence. Of the incident itself, or of the tower in Siloam (probably the district in which the fountain, Joh 9:7, was situated,—though on the whole matter, and the situation of the fountain itself, there is considerable uncertainty), we know nothing. Josephus says of the wall of the ancient city, πρὸς νότον ὑπὲρ τὴν Σιλωὰμ ἐπιστρέφον πηγήν, B. J. v. 4. 2: see also Neh 3:15. In B. J. vi. 7. 2, he uses μέχρι τοῦ Σιλωάμ, as here, meaning apparently a district of the city: see on John l. c.

ὀφειλέται, sinners,—see Mat 6:12;—perhaps the same thought may be traced as pervading the saying, as in vv. 58, 59, of the last chapter. (No such idea as that the tower was a prison for debtors is for a moment to be thought of.)

ὡσαύτως] See on ὁμοίως above,—similarly—in the ruin of your whole city. This does not render it necessary that these words should have been spoken to actual dwellers in Jerusalem: for nearly the whole nation was assembled there at the time of the siege.

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

5. μετανοήσητε. The change of tense, if this be the right reading (א A D L M T U X), points to the need of immediate repentance, as distinct from a state or continued attitude of repentance, μετανοῆτε (ver. 3). Vulg. expresses the difference by nisi poœnitentiam habueritis (ver. 3) and si pœnitentiam non egeritis (ver. 5). See on 3:3 and 5:32.

πάντες ὡσαύτως ἀπολεῖσθε. The ὡσαύτως is stronger than ὁμοίως, as “in the same manner” than “in like manner.” In both verses the MSS. are divided, but with a balance in ver. 3 for ὁμοίως and for ὡσαύτως here. See Jos. B. J. vi. 5, 4, 7. 2, 8. 3, etc., for the similarity between the fate of these eighteen and that of the Jews at the fall of Jerusalem.

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