Luke 15:9

Luk 15:9. Συγκαλεῖται, calleth together) forthwith.—τὰς φίλας καὶ τὰς γείτονας; female friends and neighbours) The angelic forces, viewed in themselves, have no distinction of sex. They are, however, regarded as acting either at home or abroad; Heb 1:14, note: when abroad, they are represented in man’s attire, which is suited to war: when at home, in the attire suited to peace, and which is that usually assigned to women.

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

Luk 15:9 . συγκαλεῖ : this calling together of friends and neighbours (feminine in this case, τὰς φ . καὶ τὰς γ .) peculiarly natural in the case of a woman; hence perhaps the reading of T.R., συγκαλεῖται , the middle being more subjective. The finding would appeal specially to feminine sympathies, if the lost drachma was not part of a hoard to meet some debt, but belonged to a string of coins worn as an ornament round the head, then as now, by married women in the East, as Tristram suggests ( Eastern Customs in Bible Lands , p. 76). This view, favoured by Farrar, is ignored by most commentators.

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

9. I have found the piece which I had lost] She does not say ‘my piece.’ If the woman be intended to represent the Church, the loss of the ‘piece’ entrusted to her may be in part, at least, her own fault.

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 when she hath found it, she calleth her friends,.... See Gill on Luk 15:6 a parable somewhat like to this, the Jews (x) have on those words in Pro 2:4 "If thou seekest her as silver", &c.

"it is like to a man that has lost a "shekel", (a piece of money,) or beryl rings, within his house; he lights up many lamps and many candles, until he lights on them; and lo, these things much more: for if a man for the things of the temporary life of this world, lights many lamps and candles, until he lights upon them and finds them; the words of the law, since they are the life of this world, and the life of the world to come, shouldest thou not search after them as for hidden treasure?''

(x) Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 1. 4.

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

9 And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.

Ver. 9. Rejoice with me] What greater joy than to have had a hand in the conversion of a sinner from the error of his way?

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.

9. Her friends and her neighbours—Here the Church is perhaps a Church; we have a picture of the union of the various sections into which the universal Church must of necessity be divided; and it is a common rejoicing over the conversion of sinners and the triumphs of the cross.

Rejoice with me—Just as these Scribes and Pharisees ought to have rejoiced with Jesus when stupid Jewish wanderers, or senseless Gentile outcasts, listened to his gospel and renounced their sins. This joy of the Church over the converted sinner is pictured forth by Jesus to show these doctors of the Jewish Church that if they are of the true Church they will rejoice too.

Which I have lost—For the Church has lost every soul that is lost. Every soul is redeemed by Christ. Every soul is met as it enters probation with the saving power of the atonement, and is truly an heir of heaven. Every soul enters life a proper member of the Church; of which membership baptism is the true recognition. And if the soul be left unconscious, as a piece of metal, of its own worth, and become hard in sin, and buried in darkness and dust, with the image, not of the blessed Redeemer, but of the gods of heathenism, which are but forms of the devil, it is the Church who lost them, and the Church who may rejoice when she has found that which she had lost.

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

Vers. 9, 10. And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Again, as in the parable of the lost sheep, we find this longing for sympathy; again the finding of this sympathy in heavenly places, among heavenly beings, is especially recorded. There is a slight difference in the language of rejoicing here. In the first parable it was, "Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost;" here, "... for I have found the piece which I had lost." In the first it was the anguish of the sheep which was the central point of the story; in the second it was the distress of the woman who had lost something; hence this difference in the wording. "What grandeur belongs to the picture of this humble rejoicing which this poor woman celebrates with her neighbours, when it becomes the transparency through which we get a glimpse of God himself, rejoicing with his elect and his angels over the salvation of a single sinner!" (Godet).

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

9. συνκαλεῖ. Some MSS. read συγκαλεῖται, which would express a more personal joy, just as ἦν ἀπώλεσα expresses a more personal loss.

εὖρον τὴν δραχμὴν ἣν ἀπώλεσα. She does not say ‘my piece.’ If the woman be intended to represent the Church, the loss of the ‘piece’ entrusted to her may be in part, at least, her own fault.

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.

9.] αἱ φίλαι κ. γείτονες are invited—but there is no return home now—nor in the explanation, ver. 10, is there any ἐν οὐρανῷ, because the Spirit abides in the Church—because the angels are present in the Church, see 1Co 11:10:—nor is it ἔσται (as in ver. 7 at the return of the Redeemer then future), but γίνεται—the ministering spirits rejoice over every soul that is brought out of the dust of death into God’s treasure-house by the searching of the blessed Spirit.

In this parable then we have set before us the sinner who is unconscious of himself and his own real worth; who is lying, though in reality a precious coin, in the mire of this world, lost and valueless, till he is searched out by the blessed and gracious Spirit. And that such a search will be made, we are here assured.

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

9. τὰς φίλας καὶ γείτονας. “Her women friends and neighbours.” No meaning is to be sought in the change of gender, which merely preserves the harmony of the picture. It is women who congratulate Naomi and Ruth (Rth 4:14, Rth 4:17).

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

Her friends. Female friends, for the noun is used in the feminine form. I lost. Through her own carelessness. Of the sheep, Jesus says "was lost." " A sheep strays of itself, but a piece of money could only be lost by a certain negligence on the part of such as should have kept it " (Trench). In the one case, the attention is fastened on the condition of the thing lost; in the other, upon the sorrow of the one who has lost.

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