Luke 4:26

Luk_4:26

Save unto Sarepta

Description of Sarepta

The ruins of Sarepta are scattered over the plain, at intervals, for more than a mile: one group is on the coast, and may be the remains of the ancient harbour.

These lie on a tongue of land which forms a small bay, and pleasantly varies the monotony of the otherwise unbroken coast line. Fine crops brighten part of the plain around, though only the small village of Surafend, the modern representative of the ancient town, is actually surrounded by green. Sarepta was famous for its wine in the early Christian centuries, but it got its name in the Hebrew Bible--Zarpath--from its being in still older days a chief centre of the glass works of Phoenicia--the word meaning melting-houses. It belonged to the territory of Sidon, and must have been a large place, if we may judge from the number of rock-tombs at the foot of the hills. Its supreme interest, however, to all Bible readers lies in its connection with the great Prophet Elijah. A place is still shown at the old harbour where a Christian Church once stood, on the alleged site of the widows house in which the prophet lived. But no value is to be attached to such a localization, though the spot is still called The Grave of Eliiah, in the belief that he finally died there. During the reign of the Crusaders, Sarepta was strongly fortified, and made the seat of a bishop, who was subject to the Archbishop of Sidon; but as early as the end of the thirteenth century it had sunk into utter desolation. Legend has tried to identify it with the home of the Syrophcenician woman whose daughter Christ healed, but there is no ground for this fancy. Its fame must always rest, for Christians, on the noble lesson of faith in God taught by the prophet on the one hand, and by the great-hearted widow on the other. (C. Geikie, D. D.)

All men are thought of by God

There is a place in each mothers heart for every child that is given her, and do you not suppose there is a place in Gods heart for every child that He has created? Do you not suppose that all men stand before Him plain, and individual, and distinct? Yes, you stand before God as if there were not another man in the universe. As men stand before us without mistake of identity, and as all that we think and feel of them we think and feel of them as individuals, so we stand before God, and all that He thinks and feels of us He thinks and feels of us as individuals. He calls every one of us by name, and He does it a great deal more than we know. How much does the child know of the thoughts of the mother who sings and rocks its cradle while it sleeps, and breathes its name? When the child is gone from home for a visit or for school, how much does it know of the thoughts that are beaded and strung, pearl-like, before God, on its account, or of the frequency with which its name is uttered? If the child could follow its fathers and mothers voice, in the closet and elsewhere, how often would it hear its own sweet name sounding all the way up to heaven! And if this is so with earthly parents, may we not suppose, when we remember the boundlessness of Gods love, that there is not a child of His on which He does not bestow special thought and attention? (H. W.Beecher.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 4:26. Ἡλίας, Elias) For which reason people like those of Nazareth might have brought the same objection against Elijah and Elisha, which they brought against Christ. But Elijah was not sent to those with whom he was not likely to be accepted. Therefore not even at Nazareth [though “His country”] shall the glory of the Messiah be needlessly thrown away.—τῆς Σιδῶνος, Sidon) Oftentimes in the temples and schools much labour is bestowed without any fruit resulting among one’s hearers that are connected with us: whereas, to some one stranger some one sermon, letter, or little treatise, proves the instrument of salvation.—πρὸς γυναῖκα unto a woman) It was therefore the widow that received the benefit, when she was seeming to have been the giver to the prophet, rather than vice versâ.

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

Luk 4:26 . Σάρεπτα , a village lying between Tyre and Sidon = modern Surafend .

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

save . . . saving--"but only." (Compare Mar 13:32, Greek.)

Sarepta--"Zarephath" (Kg1 17:9), a heathen village between Tyre and Sidon. (See Mar 7:24.)

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 26. Unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta] The sentence is elliptical, and means this: To none of them was Elias sent; he was not sent except to Sarepta; for the widow at Sarepta was a Sidonian, not a widow of Israel. PEARCE. - Sarepta was a pagan city in the country of Sidon, in the vicinity of Galilee.

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

(26) Save unto Sarepta.—Better, but unto Sarepta, the Greek conjunction here marking a contrast rather than an exception. Sarepta, the Zarephath of 1Ki_17:9, was a Phoenician city lying between Tyre and Sidon. The reference to this incident at the commencement of our Lord’s ministry is a striking instance of His method of reading the underlying lessons of the narratives of the Old Testament, such as we see afterwards in His reference to David eating the shewbread. (See Notes on Mat_12:3-4.) In what seemed a mere episode in the life of Elijah He finds a truth which implies the future calling of the Gentiles. When He complied with the prayer of the Syro-Phœnician woman, He was doing as Elijah had done.

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

26. save unto Sarepta] i. e. “but he was sent to Sarepta.” Zarephath (1Ki_17:9) was a Phoenician town near the coast between Tyre and Sidon, now called Surafend.

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.

But unto none of them was Elias sent,.... That is, to none of the poor widows in the land of Israel was the prophet sent, to supply them with food, and relieve them in their famishing circumstances, as might most reasonably have been expected:

save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon; which in Kg1 17:10 is called "Zarephath"; and by the Septuagint there, "Sarepta of Sidon", as here. Pliny (r) speaks of it by the same name, and reckons it to Sidon:

unto a woman that was a widow: she is said by the Jews (s), to be the mother of Jonah the prophet. Our Lord meant to observe, by this instance, as by the following, that God bestows his favours on persons in a sovereign way, and sometimes upon the most unlikely; as in a time of famine, he overlooked the poor widows in Israel, his peculiar people, and sent his prophet to a Gentile woman in one of the cities of Sidon; and therefore they should cease to wonder if he wrought his miracles in other places, and not in his own country; since this was agreeable to the divine procedure in other cases, especially since they were a cavilling and unbelieving people. The Jews say (t), that in all that generation there was not found any one that was worthy, as this woman.

(r) L. 5. c. 19. (s) Pirke Eliezer, c. 33. (t) Zohar in Exod. fol. 89. 2.

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

26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.

Ver. 26. That was a widow] A calamitous name, 2Sa 14:5. The Hebrews call her Almanah, a dumb woman, because either she dare not or may not speak for herself: but God professeth himself the patron of such; and he can speak for them in the hearts of their greatest adversaries. Happy they in such an advocate.

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.

Save unto Sarepta - Sarepta was a town between Tyre and Sidon, near the Mediterranean Sea. It was not a “Jewish” city, but a Sidonian, and therefore a “Gentile” town. The word “save” in this verse does not express the meaning of the original. It would seem to imply that the city was Jewish. The meaning of the verse is this: “He was sent to none of the widows in Israel. He was not sent except to Sarepta, to a woman that was a “Sidonian.” Dr. Thomson (“The Land and the Book,” vol. i. p. 232-236) regards Sarepta as the modern Sarafend. He says that the ruins have been frequently dug over for stone to build the barracks at Beirut, and that the broken columns, marble slabs, sarcophagi, and other ruins indicate that it was once a flourishing city. A large town was built there in the time of the Crusades.

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

26. Σιδωνίας, אABCD.

26. εἰ μὴ εἰς Σάρεπτα, i.e. “but he was sent to Sarepta.” Zarephath (1Ki 17:9) was a Phoenician town near the coast between Tyre and Sidon, now called Surafend.

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.

26.] Sarepta, now Sŭrafend, see Robinson. iii. 413,—a large village, inland, halfway between Tyre and Sidon:—the ancient city seems to have been on the coast.

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

26. The translation of εἰ μή in this and the following clauses by “but only”(RV.), sed (Beza), or sed tantum, is justifiable, because “save” (AV.) and nisi (Vulg.) seem to involve an absurdity which was not apparent to a Greek. It is not, however, correct to say that in such cases εἰ μή is put for ἀλλά, any more than in Mat 20:23 or Mar 4:22 it would be correct to say that ἀλλά is put for εἰ μή. Here and in Mat 12:4 (comp: Rom 14:14; 1Co 7:17, Gal 1:7, Gal 2:16) “the question is not whether εἰ μή retains exceptive force, for this it seems always to do, but whether the exception refers to be whole clause or to the verb alone” (Lft. on Gal 1:19): comp. Rev 21:27.—In εἰς Σάρεπτα, κ.τ.λ. we perhaps have a quotation from Lxx of 1Ki 17:9. There, as here, the reading vary between Σιδῶνος and Σιδωνίας (sc. γῆς or χώρας). Here the latter is right, meaning the territory of in which Sarepta lay. Zarephath (in Syriac Tsarfah, in Greek Σάρεφθα, Σάρεπτα and Σέφθα) is probably represented by the modern Sŭrafend on the coast road between Tyre and Sidon.

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