Luke 4:19

acceptable year--an allusion to the jubilee year (Lev 25:10), a year of universal release for person and property. (See also Isa 49:8; Co2 6:2.) As the maladies under which humanity groans are here set forth under the names of poverty, broken-heartedness, bondage, blindness, bruisedness (or crushedness), so, as the glorious HEALER of all these maladies, Christ announces Himself in the act of reading it, stopping the quotation just before it comes to "the day of vengeance," which was only to come on the rejecters of His message (Joh 3:17). The first words, "THE SPIRIT of the LORD is upon ME," have been noted since the days of the Church Fathers, as an illustrious example of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost being exhibited as in distinct yet harmonious action in the scheme of salvation.

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

(19) The acceptable year of the Lord.—The primary reference was to the year of Jubilee, when land that had been mortgaged returned to its owner, and debts were forgiven, and Israelite slaves released (Lev_25:9-10). It was to our Lord, as it had been to Isaiah, the type of the “year” of the divine kingdom. A somewhat slavish literalism, which the study of St. John’s Gospel (Luke 2, 5, 6, 7, 12) would have dispelled in an hour, led some of the Fathers to infer from this that our Lord’s ministry lasted but for a single year.

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

19. the acceptable year] The primary allusion is to the year of Jubilee, Lev_25:8-10; but this was only a type of the true Jubilee of Christ’s kingdom. Many of the Fathers, with most mistaken literalness, inferred from this verse that our Lord’s ministry only lasted a year, and the notion acquired more credence from the extraordinary brightness of His first, or Galilaean, year of ministry. This view has been powerfully supported by Mr Browne in his Ordo Saeclorum, but is quite untenable (Joh_2:13; Joh_6:4; Joh_11:55).

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.

To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. The time which he willed and fixed for the redemption of his people, and in which he showed his goodwill and pleasure unto sinful men, in the gift of his Son to them, and for them; and which, as the Arabic and Syriac versions render it, was a time "acceptable to the Lord": the sufferings of Christ were according to his will; his sacrifice was of a sweet smelling savour to him; his righteousness he was well pleased with; and the satisfaction and atonement for sin he made was a plenary and complete one: all Christ did, and suffered, were grateful to God, because hereby his perfections were glorified, his purposes, counsel, and covenant were accomplished, and his people saved. The Persic version renders it, "to preach the law acceptable to God", neither agreeable to the original text, nor its sense; for Christ was sent to preach the Gospel, and not the law. In the Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions is added, "and the day of vengeance", out of the prophecy in Isa 61:2 but is not in any of the copies, or other versions. Our Lord did not read through all the three verses in the prophet, as it might be thought he would, and which was agreeable to the Jewish canon (c):

"he that reads in the law may not read less than three verses, and he may not read to an interpreter more than one verse, and in a prophet three; and if those three are three sections, they read everyone; they skip in a prophet, but they do not skip in the law.''

This last our Lord did, though he did not strictly attend to the former. Indeed, their rule, as elsewhere (d) given, obliged to read one and twenty verses; but this was not always observed; for

"if on a sabbath day there was an interpreter, or a preacher, they read in a prophet three verses, or five, or seven, and were not solicitous about twenty and one (e)''

(c) Misn. Megilia, c. 4. sect. 4. Massechet Sopherim, c. 11. sect. 1. (d) Piske Harosh Megilla, c. 3. art. 6. (e) Massechet Sopherim, c. 12. sect. 7.

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

19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Ver. 19. The acceptable year of the Lord] A joyful jubilee. Let us not stand out the time, lest we be bored in the ear by the devil.

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.

To peach the acceptable year of the Lord - The time when God is willing to accept of people, or to receive sinners coming to him. The gospel assures us that the guilty “may” return, and that God will graciously receive them. There is, perhaps, here, an allusion to the year of jubilee - the fiftieth year, when the trumpet was blown, and through the whole land proclamation was made of the liberty of Hebrew slaves, of the remission of debts, and of the restoration of possessions to their original families, Lev 25:8-13. The phrase “the acceptable year” means the time when it would be acceptable to God to proclaim such a message, or agreeable to him - to wit, under the gospel.

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

To set at liberty them that are bruised, or oppressed. These words are not in the prophet; but are added by St. Luke, to explain the others. --- To preach the acceptable year, as it were the jubilee year, when slaves used to be set at liberty. (Witham)

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).

19. The acceptable year of the Lord—The year of jubilee, which by the Mosaic law returned every fiftieth year. In this year the debtors and bondsmen were to be released, possessions to be restored, and oppression to cease. To this the gospel day is compared as being acceptable to the Lord. The very unsound inference was anciently drawn, from this term year, that the duration of our Lord’s ministry was but a single year.

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

The acceptable year - Plainly alluding to the year of jubilee, when all, both debtors and servants, were set free.

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

acceptable A comparison with the passage quoted, Isa 61:1; Isa 61:2 affords an instance of the exquisite accuracy of Scripture. Jesus stopped at, "The acceptable year of the Lord," which is connected with the first advent and the dispensation of grace Gen 3:15. (See Scofield "Act 1:11"), "the day of vengeance of our God" belongs to the second advent, Deu 30:3. See Scofield "Act 1:11", and judgment.

Lord Jehovah. Isa 61:1; Isa 61:2.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. κηρῦξαι … ἀποστεῖλαι … κηρῦξαι. The infinitives follow each other without conjunctions (asyndeton, Winer, p. 674). For the accent of κηρῦξαι see Winer, p. 57.

αἰχμαλώτοις. Properly ‘prisoners of war’; but the word may be used generally as in Col 4:10.

τυφλοῖς ἀνάβλεψιν. Here the LXX[102] differs from the Hebrew, which has “opening of prison to the bound.” Perhaps this is a reminiscence of Isa 42:7.

[102] LXX. Septuagint.

ἀποστεῖλαι τεθραυσμένους ἐν ἀφέσει. This also is not in Isa 61:1, but is a free reproduction of the LXX[103] in Isa 58:6. Either the text of the Hebrew was then slightly variant, or the record introduces into the text a reminiscence of the discourse. The ἐν ἀφέσει is a constructio praegnans ‘to send them away (so that they are) in a state of deliverance.’ (Comp. Luk 2:29.) By this construction we have often a verb of motion with a preposition of rest, or vice versâ. Winer, p. 775 sq. Comp. κατῆλθε Πλάτων ἐν Σικελίᾳ, Aelian, IV. 18. Ἡφαιστίων εἰς Ἐκβάτανα ἀπέθανε id. VII. 8. Comp. Mat 14:3, ἔθετο ἐν φυλακῇ. Mar 2:1, εἰς οἶκόν ἐστι.

[103] LXX. Septuagint.

ἐνιαυτὸν … δεκτόν. ‘An acceptable year.’ The primary allusion is to the year of Jubilee, Lev 25:8-10; but this was only a type of the true Jubilee of Christ’s kingdom. Many of the Fathers, (Clemens Alex., Origen, &c.,) with most mistaken literalness, inferred from this verse that our Lord’s ministry only lasted a year, and the notion acquired more credence from the extraordinary brightness of His first, or Galilaean, year of ministry. This view has been powerfully supported by Mr Browne in his Ordo Saeclorum, and is followed by Keim, Gesch. Jesu, I. 130, 615 seq.; but is quite untenable (Joh 2:13; Joh 6:4; Joh 11:55).

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.

19. ἐνιαυτ. κυρ. δεκ.] See Lev 25:8-17, where in ver. 10 we find that liberty was proclaimed to all in the land in the year of jubilee (in the prophecy, κηρύξαι = καλέσαι LXX). No countenance is given by this expression to the extraordinary inference from it of some of the Fathers (Clement of Alex., Origen), that the Lord’s public ministry lasted only a year, and something over. Compare Joh 2:13; Joh 6:4; Joh 13:1.

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

19. ἐνιαυτὸν Κυρίου δεκτόν. The age of the Messiah, which is Jehovah’s time for bestowing great blessings on His people. Comp. καιρὸς δεκτός (2Co 6:2; Isa 49:8): δεκτός is not found in class. Grk. It is strange that Clement of Alexandria and Origen, who are commonly so ready to turn fact into figure, here turn an expression which is manifestly figurative into a literal statement of fact, and limit Christ’s ministry to a period of twelve months (comp. Clem. Hom. 17:19). Keim and other modern writers have made the same limit; but the three Passovers distinguished by S. John (2:13, 6:4, 11:55) are quite fatal to it.1 It is, however, an equally faulty exegesis to find the three years (i.e. two years and a fraction) of Christ’s ministry in the three years of Lk. 6-9 or the three days of 13:31-33. The first of these is obviously a parabolic saying not to be understood literally; and the other probably is such. The suggestion that the three servants sent to the wicked husbandmen mean the three years of the ministry is almost grotesque. See Nösgen, Gesch. Jesu Christi, Kap. 8., München, 1890.

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

To preach (Rev., proclaim). the acceptable year of the Lord. As on the first day of the year of Jubilee, when the priests went through the land proclaiming, with sound of trumpet, the blessings of the opening year (Lev 25:8 - 17). Note verse 10, where liberty is to be proclaimed to all in that year. Wyc., the year of the Lord pleasant. A literal interpretation of the word year gave rise among some of the Christian fathers to the theory that our Lord 's ministry lasted but a single year.

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