Luke 24:29

24:29 they begged him, “Stay the night with us”: Middle Eastern hospitality demanded that they offer food and lodging to this stranger (Gen 18:3; 19:2; Judg 19:5-9).

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

Luk 24:29. Μεῖνον, abide) They were beseeching Him, from love for His own sake, and from hospitality, that He should not venture to proceed on His journey by night.

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

Luk 24:29 . παρεβιάσαντο , they constrained by entreaty, again in Act 16:15 , found in Gen 19:9 . μεθʼ ἡμῶν , with us, presumably in their home or lodgings. If they were but guests they could not well invite another. πρὸς ἑσπέραν , κέκλικεν ἡ ἡ .: two phrases where one was enough, by way of pressing their fellow-traveller. They make the most of the late hour, which is not their real reason.

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

constrained, &c.--But for this, the whole design of the interview had been lost; but it was not to be lost, for He who only wished to be constrained had kindled a longing in the hearts of His travelling companions which was not to be so easily put off. And does not this still repeat itself in the interviews of the Saviour with His loving, longing disciples? Else why do they say,

Abide with me from morn to eve,

For without Thee I cannot live;

Abide with me when night is nigh,

For without Thee I cannot die.

KEBLE

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. For it is toward evening] And consequently both inconvenient and unsafe to proceed to another village. Reader! it is probably the eve of thy life, whether thou be old or young: thy day may have already declined, and there is, possibly, but a step between thee and the eternal world! Hath the Lord Jesus taught thee by his word and Spirit to believe in him, that thou mightest be saved? Is he come into thy heart? Hast thou the witness of his Spirit that thy sin is blotted out through his blood? Ro 8:16; Ga 4:6; 1Jo 5:10-12. If thou have not, get thee to God right humbly. Jesus is about to pass by, perhaps for ever! O, constrain him, by earnest faith and prayer, to enter into thy soul, and lodge with thee! May God open THY eyes! May he stir up and inflame THY heart!

And he went in] And so he will to thee, thou penitent soul! Therefore take courage, and be not faithless but believing.

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

(29) Abide with us: for it is toward evening.—As .part of the narrative, the words have the interest of bringing before us the eager desire of the disciples to know more of the wisdom which they had been drinking in from the lips of the unknown Teacher. They could not bring themselves to part with one who had done so much for them. Devout imagination has, however, legitimately read other meanings in it. “Abide with me” has become the burden of the most popular of evening hymns, the true prayer for the evening of each day, for the evening of each man’s life, for the moments when hopes fail and we commune one with another and are sad; for those, also, when our hearts burn within us in the half-consciousness that Christ is speaking to us through the lips of human teachers.

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

29. Abide with us] It is this beautiful verse which has furnished the idea of Lyte’s dying hymn, ‘Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.’

he went in to tarry with them] Comp. Heb_13:2, “thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

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 their eyes were opened,.... Not that they were before shut, or closed up, but what before held them was removed, and what hindered their sight and knowledge was taken away; and perhaps these actions of his taking the bread, and blessing, and breaking, and giving it to them, might put them in mind of him, and cause them to look wistfully at him, when, what beclouded their sight being gone, and he appearing in his usual form, they perceived who he was:

and they knew him; to be their dear Lord and master, for whose death they had been sorrowing, and of redemption by him, and of whose resurrection they had been doubting:

and vanished out of their sight; not that he vanished as a spectre, or as smoke vanishes into air; but agility being a property of his risen body, he very suddenly, and swiftly, and in a moment, withdrew himself from them; for if he could withdraw himself from company in a very speedy manner before his resurrection, much more after; see Luk 4:30. The Syriac version renders it, "he was taken away from them"; as if some of the ministering angels were made use of to remove him at once; but this seems not necessary: the Arabic version renders it, "he was hidden from them"; that same power of his that held their eyes all the while they were travelling together, interposed some object between him and them, so that he could not be seen by them that very instant, even before he was gone out of the house.

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

29 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.

Ver. 29. But they constrained him] Though they had been sharply rebuked by him, whom they knew to be no other than a mere stranger to them.

For it is toward evening] Cry we, now if ever, ere it be too late,

" Vespera iam venit, nobiscum Christe maneto.

Extingui lucem nec patiare tuam."

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.

Constrained him - They urged him, or pressingly invited him. They did not yet perceive that it was Jesus, but they had been charmed and delighted with his discourse, and they wished to hear him farther. Christians are delighted with communion with the Saviour. They seek it as the chief object of their desire, and they find their chief pleasure in fellowship with him. The two disciples felt it a privilege to entertain the stranger, as they supposed, who had so charmed them with his discourse; and so those to whom the gospel is preached, and who love it, feel it a privilege, and not a burden, to show kindness to those who bear to them the message of salvation.

Abide with us - Remain with us, or pass the night in our house.

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

And he went in to tarry with them. Some have supposed that one at least of the two had a dwelling at Emmaus; but the position which the strange Teacher assumed as "Master of the household," in the solemn act recorded in ver. 30, seems to indicate that it was an inn where they sojourned.

The exigency of old age.

The disciples "constrained" our Lord to abide with them; for, they said, "It is toward evening, and the day is far spent." This act of theirs and their words taken together are suggestive of the truth that those whose life is fast waning with whom it is "toward evening," whose day is "far spent have urgent need that Jesus Christ should "abide with" them. We have before us the special spiritual necessities of old age. It has

I ITS SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY. We look to advanced religious experience to set us a particularly blameless example, to show us most clearly the spirit and the complexion of a distinctly Christian life, to lead us in the direction of spirituality and purity. For this high service the near presence of the Saviour is needed, and the constant exercise of his gracious power.

II ITS SPECIAL TEMPTATION. The temptation of age is to querulousness, to an illiberal criticism of the present and to an undue and partial preference of the past, to an unjust and unwise severity in judging the eccentricities and irregularities of the young, to a dissatisfaction with the comparative obscurity to which it is itself descending. To prevail against this temptation, and to preserve equanimity, sweetness, cheerfulness of spirit and hopefulness of heart, age has urgent need of a constant renewal from above.

III ITS SPECIAL PRIVATIONS. There are a few who live to a "good old age" without any or without much consciousness of loss. But these are only a few. With old age usually comes privation. In respect of sight, of hearing, of power of locomotion, of facility in speaking, of memory, of intellectual grasp, the aged are painfully conscious that "they are not what they were; they speak with diminished fire, they act with a lessened force." Their life is lower, is narrowed; they are less to their contemporaries than they used to be. They need comfort under the sense of loss; they need another source of satisfaction and of joy. In whom, in what, shall they find it, but in the Person and the presence of the Divine Friend and Saviour?

IV ITS SPECIAL LONELINESS, Age is often lonely. It misses the companions of its youth and its prime. Most of these, perhaps nearly all, have fallen, and they are as the last leaf upon the wintry bough. "They are all gone, the old familiar faces," is the plaintive strain of their discourse; and some who still live have drifted away from them in space or in spirit. There is no one left who can go back with them in thought and sympathy to the old times, the memory of which is so pleasant, and which they would fain revisit with the friends of youth and childhood. Age is apt to be very lonely, and it has great need of a Divine Companion who does not pass away, who "abides," who is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.

V ITS SPECIAL LIMITATION. We all know that there may not be many days left in which we can bear witness for our Lord and his gospel. But the aged know that there can not be many more left to them. So much the more, therefore, as they see the night approaching when they can work no more for their Master, may they well desire to be and to do all that still lies in their power. Every hour is golden to him to whom but few remain.

And because the opportunities of serving men here on earth are narrowing perceptibly day by day, the aged may earnestly entreat their Lord to be near to them, and to let his grace rest upon them, that their last days may be full of fruitfulness as well as of peace and hope.

VI ITS NEARNESS TO DEATH. We wish not only to "live unto the Lord," but also to "die unto the Lord;" to honour him in the manner of our death as well as by the spirit of our life. They who feel that the evening shadows are gathering, and that the night of death is near, may well wish for the near presence of the upholding Saviour, with whom they will go tranquilly and hopefully through the last darkness. Abide with us," they say; "be with us as we take the last steps of our earthly journey, go down with us into the deep waters, attend us till we reach the heavenly shore." "Oh, meet us in the valley, When heart and flesh shall fail, And softly, safely, lead us on, Until within the veil; When faith shall turn to gladness, To find ourselves with thee, And trembling Hope shall realize Her full felicity. C.

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

They constrained him - By their importunate entreaties.

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

29–32. Abide with us. For the night.

Took the bread and blessed it. Not as a guest, but as the host.

Their eyes were opened. They recognized him.

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.

29. παρεβιάσαντο. Act 16:15.

μεῖνον μεθ’ ἡμῶν. It is this beautiful verse which has furnished the idea of Lyte’s dying hymn, ‘Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.’

τοῦ μεῖναι. Comp. Heb 13:2, “thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

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.] παρεβ., they constrained Him. It is not implied that He said any thing to indicate that He would go further—but simply, that He was passing on. “Our blessed Saviour pretended that He would pass forth beyond Emmaus: but if he intended not to do it, yet He did no injury to the two disciples, for whose good it was that He intended to make this offer: and neither did He prevaricate the strictness of simplicity and sincerity, because they were persons with whom He had made no contracts; to whom He had passed no obligation; and in the nature of the thing, it is proper and natural, by an offer, to give an occasion to another to do a good action: and in case it succeeds not, then to do what we intended not; and so the offer was conditional.” Jer. Taylor, Sermon on Christian Simplicity. Works (Heber), vi. 156.

μεθʼ ἡμῶν does not imply that they lived at Emmaus; merely in the same quarters with us.

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

29. παρεβιάσαντο. Moral pressure, especially by entreaty, is meant : Act 16:15; Gen 19:9; Gen_1 Sam, 28:23; 2Ki 2:17, 2Ki 5:16. In the last case the urgent entreaty is unsuccessful, and therefore the word does not imply compulsion. Comp. ἀνάγκασον εἰσεθεῖν (14:23).

Μεῖνον μεθʼ ἡμῶν. Combined with what follows, this implies a dwelling. which may have been the home of one of the two. Their allowing Him to preside does not prove that it was an inn. In their enthusiasm they naturally left the chief place to Him. On the other hand, μεθʼ ἡμῶν is simply “in our company,” not necessarily “at our house” : comp.σὺν αὐτοῖς below.

πρὸς ἐσπέραν Comp. Gen 8:11; Exo 12:6; Num 9:11; Zec 14:7. The classical ἐσπέρα is very freq. in LXX, but in N.T. is peculiar to Lk. (Act 4:3, Act 28:23). So also κλίνω of the declining day (9:12): Comp. Jer 6:4.

The ἥδη after κέκλικεν (א B L: 1 33, a b e f ff2, Vulg. Boh.) is doubtless genuine. Syr-Cur. and Syr-Sin. paraphrase the sentence: “And they began to entreat Him that He would be (abide) with them, because it was nearly dark”.

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

They constrained [παρεβιασαντο] . Contrary to [παρα] his apparent intention of going on. Only here and Act 16:15.

Is far spent [κεκλικεν] . Lit., has declined. Wyc., is now bowed down.

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