Luke 4:40

Luk_4:40; Luk_4:42

Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick

Now when the sun was setting

When the sun set another sun arose.

The eventide of nature brought the morning of restoration. Nature perishes: Grace is eternal. Come to Christ when you can--early in the day, or in the shades of evening--He is ever ready. In Luk_4:42 mark an attempt to localise Christ. This is often done even now. But He is not to be parochially or congregationally shut in. He is the light of every life. He must gather His sheep from every hill, and call His own from unexpected places. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The miracles of healing at Capernaum

These words form a very vivid contrast with what is recorded in the former part of this chapter. In Nazareth He did no mighty works. Could not, not would not. It was not because the people there didnt want help. It was as bad to be sick up there as in Capernaum. But it was because of their unbelief. Then in wonderful contrast comes this story of Capernaum. That contrast we can still make. We may have this Nazareth, Jesus in the midst with all His healing power, and yet our hearts unblessed; or it may be to us Capernaum, and Jesus moving in and out amongst us, laying His hands on every one of us and making us whole.

I. THE SCENE HERE PICTURED. The sun was setting; the mountains were lifting up their heads into the golden crimson, and the lake was bathed in the sunset hues. Across the rocky paths came wearied ones from the inland villages with withered limbs; blind men groping their way and asking piteously if they were right; deaf men trying to read the signs of His coming in everybodys face; and, across the lake, boat-loads of sick ones, the glassy surface of the lake just broken by the ripple of the oar; and thus they came, until what a sight it was about the gate of the city!

II. FOLLOW THE MASTER THROUGH THE WARDS OF HIS HOSPITAL. NOW the whisper runs through the crowd, He comes. He comes--those eyes of His all filled with compassion; and moving about amongst them, He laid His hands on every one of them. No poor woman was thrust away outside; no poor little child was forgotten.

1. Notice that the power of the Lord is a healing power--not to condemn the world. And

2. See how the Lord uses this power--with what gentleness.

3. Notice how the Lord deals with men in their individuality--every one of them.

III. Look AT THE SICK ONES. First, here is a heathen woman. Here stands a sturdy Roman soldier who has been maimed in some fight, &c. In Christs hospital every case is peculiar. (New Outlines of Sermons on New Testament.)

Gods Kingdom

Which kingdom? There is

(1) the kingdom of nature;

(2) that of providence;

(3) that of glory.

But none of these is the kingdom I am going to talk about. There is another kingdom, the kingdom of His grace, the kingdom in the hearts of men, called the kingdom of God in my text.

I. THIS KINGDOM IS ONE; THE KINGDOMS OF THE EARTH ARE MANY. The kingdom of God does not resemble any of these. It is a spiritual kingdom.

II. THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD ARE NOT HAPPY, THE KINGDOM OF GRACE IS.

III. THE KINGDOMS OF EARTH ARE MAINTAINED BY FORCE; THE THRONE OF GODS KINGDOM IS ESTABLISHED IN THE AFFECTIONS OF ITS SUBJECTS.

III. THE KINGDOMS OF EARTH DECAY; THE KINGDOM OF GOD NEVER.

IV. Practical questions:

1. Are we members of this kingdom?

2. If not, are we willing to become members? (E. G. Gange.)

Imposition of hands

This rite is a symbol of any kind of transmission, whether of a gift or an office (Moses and Joshua, Deu_34:9), or of a blessing (the patriarchal blessings), or of a duty (the transfer to the Levites of the natural functions of the eldest son in every family), or of guilt (the guilty Israelite laying his hands on the head of the victim), or of the sound, vital strength enjoyed by the person who imparts it (cures). It is not certainly that Jesus could not have worked a cure by His mere word, or even by a simple act of volition. But, in the first place, there is something profoundly human in this act of laying the hand on the head of any one whom one desires to benefit. It is a gesture of tenderness, a sign of beneficial communication such as the heart craves. Then this symbol might be morally necessary. Whenever Jesus avails Himself of any material means to work a cure--whether it be the sound of His voice, or clay made of His spittle--His aim is to establish in the form best adapted to the particular case, a personal tie between the sick person and Himself; for He desires not only to heal, but to effect a restoration to God, by creating in the consciousness of the sick a sense of union with Himself, the organ of Divine grace in the midst of mankind. This moral aim explains the variety of the means employed. Had they been curative means (of the nature of magnetic passes, for example) they could not have varied so much. But as they were addressed to the sick persons soul, Jesus chose them in such a way that His action was adapted to its character or position. In the case of a deaf mute, He puts His fingers into his ears; He anointed the eyes of a blind man with His spittle, &c. Thus their healing appeared as an emanation from His person, and attached them to Him by an indissoluble tie. Their restored life was felt to be dependent on His. (F. Godet, D. D.)

The Great Physician

We have here a picture of Jesus as the Great Physician of soul and body, the Divine restorer of health to both body and mind. It is never to be forgotten how He thus met the sufferings of humanity, and brought effective deliverance as none other ever could or ever will bring, to a world ever groaning and travailing in pain. And what He did then, He is doing still. We cannot now see His earthly Form, nor do we look for miracles to be wrought upon us; but each of us has his own peculiar care or trouble, and needs the Divine Physician to relieve his distress.

1. True, there are earthly reliefs, and it is our duty to make proper use of them; but they are all more or less temporary and fleeting.

(1) For the body: medical relief and advice, &c. Yet these can give no immunity from disease. And most remedies soon lose their power.

(2) For the mind: distraction, pleasure, &c. These also are but the results of the experience of others, but they have no last in them, and they may only make the pain worse to bear than before.

2. True also, that if present relief is not to be had, we may still be buoyed up by earthly hope. But alas! how often is this but hope deferred, which makes the heart sick; and how often is the miserable and weary sufferer brought to such a state that the only earthly hope left him is the hope that he may soon be done with earth altogether, and his poor pained body be laid to rest in the grave! Oh, how vain are all earthly hopes, and how doomed to disappointment are those who trust in them. But, thank God! our Christian philosophy is not so cold. We have more than this.

I. A PRESENT HELP. We have learned that present, earthly, personal comfort is not such a grand object after all; that there are higher things, and better things, within our reach. What are these? Growing better, being sanctified, making this life not an end but a beginning and preparation for a higher and better life. Not only so, but we can go to Jesus as truly as could the friends at Capernaum, and help to take our sufferers there. Nor have we far to go. He is always at hand, and always accessible. Moreover, He is unchangeable; not like earthly friends and comforts, but always the same; the truest help in any and every kind of suffering--whether of mind, body, or estate, as many a soul has proved, in sickness, poverty, anxiety, loneliness.

II. A FUTURE HOPE. If, in spite of every aid, the burdens of life press heavily on us, we have more than the silence of the grave to look for; we know that while our body sleeps, our soul is with Christ in paradise, and that one day there will be a happy reunion. Conclusion: Let us first find the way ourselves to this present help and future hope, and then we shall be able to point our friends to it and to Jesus who is indeed our only help and our only hope. And then, one word more for our comfort. You will remember that our blessed Lord was not done with the sufferers when He laid His hands upon them and conferred present relief in trouble. They might go home with glad hearts, and enjoy the blessing of God, but a time would come when they might again suffer in body or in mind, and when they would at last have to give up all hope of earthly remedy. But Jesus was not forgetting them. Tired and wearied as He was, He rose up a great while before day, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. He was blessing them even more in His absence than while with them in bodily presence. Even so is it still with the sufferers and with the healed. Jesus is not only ever blessing us with divine comfort and strength, but He is pleading for us with the Father. He knows the pain of each heart, and He will bless us and it for our good if we will but go to Him. (George Low, M. A.)

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

Luk 4:40. Ἑνὶ ἐκάστῳ, on every one) Implying the great facility with which He performed His cures. Thus they were the more deeply moved to faith as individuals. [Jesus has the same care for individual souls. Hast thou experienced that care?—V. g.]

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

Luk 4:40-41 . Sabbath evening cures (Mat 8:16-17 , Mar 1:32-34 ). δύνοντος τ . ἡ .: Lk. selects the more important part of Mk.’s dual definition of time. With sunset the Sabbath closed. δύνοντος is present participle of the late form δύνω = δύω . ἑνὶ ἑκάστῳ : laying His hands on each one , a touch peculiar to Lk., pointing, Godet thinks, to a separate source at Lk.’s command; much more certainly to Lk.’s desire to make prominent the benevolent sympathy of Jesus. Jesus did not heal en masse , but one by one, tender sympathy going out from Him in each case. Intrinsically probable, and worth noting. This trait in Lk. is in its own way as valuable as Mt.’s citation from Isaiah (Luk 8:17 ), and serves the same purpose.

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

4 th. Luk 4:40-41.

Here we have one of those periods when the miraculous power of Jesus was most abundantly displayed. We shall meet again with some of these culminating points in the course of His ministry. A similar rhythm is found in the career of the apostles. Peter at Jerusalem (Act 5:15-16), and Paul at Ephesus (Luk 19:11-12), exercise their miraculous power to a degree in which they appear to have exhibited it at no other time in their life; it was at the same time the culminating point of their ministry of the word.

The memory of this remarkable evening must have fixed itself indelibly in the early tradition; for the account of this time has been preserved, in almost identical terms, in our three Syn. The sick came in crowds. The expression, when the sun was setting, shows that this time had been waited for. And that not “because it was the cool hour,” as many have thought, but because it was the end of the Sabbath, and carrying a sick person was regarded as work (Joh 5:10). The whole city, as Mark, in his simple, natural, and somewhat emphatic style, says, was gathered together at the door.

According to our narrative, Jesus made use on this occasion of the laying on of hands. Luke cannot have invented this detail himself; and the others would not have omitted it if it had belonged to their alleged common source of information. Therefore Luke had some special source in which this detail was found, and not this alone. This rite is a symbol of any kind of transmission, whether of a gift or an office (Moses and Joshua, Deu 34:9), or of a blessing (the patriarchal blessings), or of a duty (the transfer to the Levites of the natural functions of the eldest sons in every family), or of guilt (the guilty Israelite laying his hands on the head of the victim), or of the sound vital strength enjoyed by the person who imparts it (cures). It is not certainly that Jesus could not have worked a cure by His mere word, or even by a simple act of volition. But, in the first place, there is something profoundly human in this act of laying the hand on the head of any one whom one desires to benefit. It is a gesture of tenderness, a sign of beneficial communication such as the heart craves. Then this symbol might be morally necessary. Whenever Jesus avails Himself of any material means to work a cure, whether it be the sound of His voice, or clay made of His spittle, His aim is to establish, in the form best adapted to the particular case, a personal tie between the sick person and Himself; for He desires not only to heal, but to effect a restoration to God, by creating in the consciousness of the sick a sense of union with Himself, the organ of divine grace in the midst of mankind. This moral aim explains the variety of the means employed. Had they been curative means,—of the nature of magnetic passes, for example,—they could not have varied so much. But as they were addressed to the sick person’s soul, Jesus chose them in such a way that His action was adapted to its character or position. In the case of a deaf mute, He put His fingers into his ears; He anointed the eyes of a blind man with His spittle, etc. In this way their healing appeared as an emanation from His person, and attached them to Him by an indissoluble tie. Their restored life was felt to be dependent on His. The repetition of the act of laying on of hands in each case was with the same view. The sick person, being thus visibly put into a state of physical dependence, would necessarily infer his moral dependence. — The Alex. readings ἐπιτίθεις, laying on, ἐθεράπευε, He healed, must be preferred. The aor. (in the T. R.) indicates the completed act, the imperf. its indefinite continuation: “Laying His hands on each of them, He healed, and kept on healing, as many as came for it.”

The demoniacs are mentioned in Luk 4:41 among the sick, but as forming a class by themselves. This agrees with what we have stated respecting their condition. There must have been some physico-psychical disorganization to afford access to the malign influence. The words ὁ Χριστός are correctly omitted by the Alex.; they have been taken from the second part of the verse.

From the fact that the multitude translated the exclamation of the devils, Thou art the Son of God, into this, It is the Christ, we have no right to conclude that the two titles were identical. By the former, the devils acknowledged the divine character of this man, who made them feel so forcibly His sovereign power. The latter was the translation of this homage into ordinary speech by the Jewish multitude. Was it the design of the devil to compromise Jesus by stirring up a dangerous excitement in Israel in His favour, or by making it believed that there was a bond of common interest between His cause and theirs? It is more natural to regard this exclamation as an involuntary homage, an anticipation of that compulsory adoration which all creatures, even those which are under the earth, as St. Paul says (Php 2:10), shall one day render to Jesus. They are before the representative of Him before whom they tremble (Jas 2:19). Jesus, who had rejected in the desert all complicity with their head, could not think of deriving advantage from this impure homage.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 40. When the sun was setting] And consequently the Sabbath ended, for before this it would have been unlawful to have brought their sick to be healed.

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

(40, 41) Now when the sun was setting.—See Notes on Mat_8:16-17. Common to St. Luke and St. Mark are the “divers diseases,” and the silence imposed on the demoniacs. The words of the demoniacs, “Thou art the Son of God,” and “they knew that He was the Christ,” are peculiar to this Gospel.

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

40–44. Healing the Sick at Evening

40. when the sun was setting] Sunset ended the Sabbath, and thus enabled Jews, without infringing on the many minute ‘abhoth’ and ‘toldoth’—i. e. primary and subordinate rules of sabbatic strictness—to carry their sick on beds and pallets. (Joh_5:11-12; see Life of Christ, i. 433.) This twilight scene of Jesus moving about with word and touch of healing among the sick and suffering, the raving and tortured crowd (Mat_4:24), is one of the most striking in the Gospels, and St Matthew quotes it as a fulfilment of Isa_53:4.

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.

Not willingly, nor of themselves, but at the word and command of Christ, who ordered them to depart,

crying out and saying; as they left the bodies, of men, and not with any goodwill to Christ:

thou art Christ; the true Messiah, that was of old promised and prophesied of, and has been long expected to come:

the Son of God; the only begotten Son of God, possessed of the same perfections with God his Father; and particularly of almighty power, of which they were convinced by his dispossessing them;

and he rebuking them, suffered them not to speak; for he needed not their testimony, nor did he choose to be made known by them:

for they knew that he was Christ, or "that they knew that he was Christ"; so the Syriac version: they certainly did know that he was the Messiah, partly by the voice from heaven at his baptism, and partly by his power over them: but Christ would not suffer them to say that he was the Messiah, or that they knew him to be so; either because the time was not come for such a declaration to be made, or they were not the proper persons to make it; and lest such a publication, by them, should be made a handle of by the Scribes and Pharisees, to say that he had society with devils, and by them cast them out.

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

The evangelist mentions this circumstance, because these distressed people did not dare to bring their sick before that time, either through fear of the Pharisees, or of violating the sabbath. (Origen)

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).

See Poole on "Mar 1:32", and following verses to Mar 1:34, where we met with the same things.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. The healing of the "possessed" in the synagogue that morning, followed by the cure of the fever of Simon"s wife"s mother, we know was rapidly noised abroad, and in great measure accoutered for the crowds who brought their sick to him in the evening. It was evidently in the life of Jesus a notable occasion, and many a sick tortured one had occasion to bless the Master"s presence then. It was so memorable an occasion that all the three evangelists notice it; their reports are recorded in almost the same words. No doubt, in the early days of the preaching of the faith, this evening"s work was constantly alluded to by the first teachers. The note of time, "when the sun was setting," indicates that the moment in question had been waited for, for sunset ended the sabbath, and then those outside Capernaum and in its outlying suburbs were enabled to bring their sick and afflicted without infringing the strict sabbath rules. "The twilight scene, of Jesus moving about with word and touch of healing among the sick and suffering, the raving and tortured crowd, (Mat_4:24) is one of the most striking in the Gospels, and St. Matthew quotes it as a fulfillment of Isa_53:4" (Farrar).

The healing Savior.

This interesting picture had evidently been impressed upon the minds of the apostolic witnesses, for all the evangelists record the fact that the occurrence took place as the sun was setting, or in the evening of the day.

It was, indeed, a sight to be long remembered. Who can imagine the gratitude and joy which filled the hearts of husbands and wives, parents and children, as they that gracious presence and returned to their homes in health and strength?

I THE SUPREME MALADY. The malady of maladies from which we suffer is sin. For sin is to the soul just what sickness is to the body.

1. Its essential nature. It is the radical disorder of the human spirit. The faculties of the soul, instead of doing that for which they were created, are helpless or are perverted, so that the man himself no longer walks with God, no longer speaks his praise, no longer works in his cause. The soul that was meant to find its life and its heritage in revering, honoring, rejoicing in, serving, glorifying God, is out of all happy relation with him, cannot do his will, may not even know who he is. Everything is in a state of disorder and helplessness.

2. Its various forms. As there are "divers diseases" of the flesh, as the sickness of the body takes a variety of forms blindness, paralysis, fever, etc. so does sin in the soul and in the life of man. It may appear as doubt, or disbelief, or even impious denial of God; or as the deliberate and determined rejection of his claims; or as a flagrant violation of his laws; or as a guilty inattention to his voice as he speaks to us in conscience, or in his Word, or in his Son; or as a prolonged and presumptuous procrastination, ever delaying to do what is recognized as the right and the wise thing.

II THE ONLY CURE. As many of these sick ones knew not what else to do, to whom else they could apply; as they felt that the ordinary remedies and the human skill accessible to them must prove unavailing, and that, if this new and wonderful Healer did not help them, they must bear their burden of pain and helplessness through their future days; so may we feel respecting the supreme malady. Nothing merely human will prove to be a cure. Only a Divine hand can heal these deep wounds, these fatal ills. And how does Jesus Christ prove himself the one Healer of the heart?

1. By showing us our sin in its true light, as a grievous wrong done to our heavenly Father, and thus filling our souls with sorrow and shame concerning it.

2. By offering himself as that Divine One through whom it may be forgiven, and we be restored to the favor and friendship of God.

3. By leading us in every path of holiness and purity, and forming in us a righteous character and an obedient spirit.

III AN EFFICACIOUS METHOD. "He laid his hands on every one of them." The touch of that Divine hand communicated health to the body, and at the same time hope and joy to the heart. It was not absolutely necessary that he should touch them; he could "speak the word only," and the patient would be healed. But he preferred to do so; it brought him, the Healer, into close and loving contact with those, whom he was healing. We, too, in our way, are healers after Christ. We aspire to move through our life, dispensing health and happiness to them that are sick and sad of soul. If we fail in part to do this, may it not be because we do not get into close enough contact with those whom we are endeavoring to bless? We must learn to be like our Lord, and lay our hands on every one of them, and then shall we be most likely to heal them. C.

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

When the sun was set - And consequently the Sabbath ended, which they reckoned from sunset to sunset. Matt. viii, 16; Mark i, 32.

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

Cures on the Sabbath evening:

v. 40. Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them, and healed them.

v. 41. And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ, the Son of God. And He, rebuking them, suffered them not to speak; for they knew that He was Christ.

With the setting of the sun the Sabbath was over, and therefore all Sabbath commands no longer binding. It was then that people, as many of them as had sick relatives and friends that were afflicted with any diseases, began to lead and to carry them to Jesus. The miracle of the morning had convinced them that they had a powerful Healer in their midst, and they were only too willing to take advantage of that fact. Jesus had compassion upon them: upon every one of the sick He laid His hands and thus cured them. What purpose the Lord had in mind in permitting Himself to be imposed upon with all this wholesale healing is shown by Mat 8:17. The one greatest disease, which the Lord has taken upon Himself and borne, is sin; all sickness, all evil, comes from sin, is a punishment of sin. When Jesus therefore laid His hands upon any sick person, it implied: Thou art a sinner, I am the Savior of sinners; I take the curse and consequence of sin from thee, let this be an admonition to thee to abstain from the service of sin. At the same time, demons came out from those possessed at the very presence of Jesus, screaming loudly and revealing the Lord’s identity as the Christ. But these revelations Jesus stopped summarily, since He desires no praise and confession from the devil nor from all those that have placed themselves in the service of the devil.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The evangelist here declares sundry other cures wrought by our Saviour: he healed the sick, and dispossessed the devils. In our Saviour’s time we read of many possessed with devils, and of but few either before or afterwards.

Probably, 1. Because Satan, perceiving the Messiah to be come in the flesh to destroy his kingdom, did rage the more, and discover greater malice and enmity against mankind.

2. Perhaps Almighty God suffered Satan at that time to possess so many, that Christ might have occasion to manifest his divine power by casting Satan out. And accordingly we find our Saviour dispossessing all that were possessed by Satan. It is added, That he suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him; that is, Christ would not be made known to be the Son of God by the preaching of the devil, lest the world should from thence take occasion to think that our Saviour held a correspondence with those wicked spirits, and that the miracles which he wrought were performed by the devil’s assistance, as being one in combination with him.

Possible from the devils owning Christ to be the Holy One of God, the Pharisees concluded that there was a compact and agreement between them; and thereupon their affirmation was grounded. He casteth out devils by Beelzebub the prince of devils.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

laid his hands on

"placed his hands on" or "touched"

Demons also came out

It is implied that Jesus made the demons leave the demon-possessed people. This can be stated clearly. AT: "Jesus also forced demons to come out" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

crying out and saying

These mean about the same thing, and probably refer to cries of fear or anger. Some translations use only one term. AT: "screaming" or "shouting" (See: Doublet)

Son of God

This is an important title for Jesus. (See: Translating Son and Father)

rebuked the demons

"spoke sternly to the demons"

would not let them

"did not allow them to"

translationWords

demon

Son of God

rebuke

Christ

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

40–44. HEALING THE SICK AT EVENING

40. δύνοντος δὲ τοῦ ἡλίου. Comp. Mat 8:16, ὀψίας δὲ γενομένης; Mar 1:32, ὅτε ἔδυ ὁ ἥλιος. St Matthew and St Mark agree most closely in details, St Mark and St Luke in the order of the narrative. The form δύνω is Ionic and poetic, and it is found here alone in the N. T. Sunset ended the Sabbath, and thus enabled Jews, without infringing on the many minute ‘abhoth’ and ‘toldoth’—i.e. primary and subordinate rules of sabbatic strictness—to carry their sick on beds and pallets. (Joh 5:11-12; see Life of Christ, I. 433.) This twilight scene of Jesus moving about with word and touch of healing among the sick and suffering, the raving and tortured crowd (Mat 4:24), is one of the most striking in the Gospels, and St Matthew quotes it as a fulfilment of Isa 53:4.

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.

40.] ἑνὶ ἑκάσ. αὐτ. τ. χ. ἐπ. is a detail peculiar to Luke, and I believe indicating the same as above: as also the κράζ. κ. λέγοντα implied in the other Evangelists, but not expressed.

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

40, 41. Numerous Healings in the Evening. Nous rencontrons ici Un de ces moments dans la vie du Seigneur où la puissance miraculeuse se déployait avec une richesse particulière: 6:19” (Godet, i. p. 339). Comp. Mat 8:16, Mat 8:17; Mar 1:32-34. The healing of the demoniac (ver. 35), and of Peter’s mother-in-law, had proved that He could heal diseases both of mind and body. All three note the two kinds of healing; but “the physician separates the two with special distinctness, and lends no support to the view that possession is merely a physical disorder.”

40. Δύνοντος δὲ τοῦ ἡλίου. Mt. has Ὀψίας δὲ γενομέης while Mk. has Ὁψίας δὲ γενομένης, ὅτε ἔδυσεν ὁ ἥλιος. We infer that here Mk. gives us the whole expression in the original tradition, of which all three make use; and that Mt. uses one half and Lk. the other half of it. See 5:13, 22:34, 23:38, for similar cases. Some infer that Mk. has combined the phrases used by the other two,and therefore must have written last of the three. But an analysis of the passages which all three have in common shows that this is incredible. The literary skill required for combining two narmtives, without adding much new material, would be immense; and Mk. does not possess it. It is much simpler to suppose that Mk. often gives the original tradition in full, and that the other two each give portions of it, and sometimes different portions. See E. A. Abbott, Ency. Brit. 9th ed. art. “Gospels,” and Abbott and Ushbrooke, The Common Tradition of the Syn. Gosp. p. x.

Δύνοντος. “When the sun was setting, ” or “ere the sun was set, ” as the hymn gives it.1 The eagerness of the people was such the very moment the Sabbath was over they began to move the sick: comp. Joh 5:10. Note Lk.’s. favourite ἅπαντες.

ἑνὶ ἑκάστῳ αὐτῶν τὰς χεῖρας ἐπιτιθείς. Lk. alone preserves this graphic detail, which emphasizes the laborious solicitude of the work. Sic singuli penitius commoti sunt ad fidem (Beng.). It does not apply to the demoniacs, who were healed λόγῳ, as Mt. states.

The action is a generally recognized symbol of trammission, especially in conferring a blessing (Gen 48:14; Lev 9:22, Lev 9:23; Mar 10:16). It is also used to symbolize the transmission of guilt (Lev 1:4, Lev 1:3:2, Lev 1:8:14, Lev 1:16:21, 22). The statement that “our Lord healed at first by laying on of hands, but gradually passed over to the exclusive use of the word of power, in order that He might not encourage the popular idea that there was a necessary connexion between the laying on of hands and the cure,” is not confirmed by Scripture. The nobleman’s son and the man at Bethesda were healed by a word (Joh 4:50, Joh 5:8); Malchus, by a touch. There was no necessity to use either word or touch. He could heal by an act of will, and at a distance from His person (7:10, 12:14; Joh 4:50). But He more often used means, possibly to aid the faith of those who needed healing (13:13, 14:4, Mat 8:3, Mat 8:9:29; Mar 7:33, Mar 7:8:23, Mar 7:25; Joh 9:6, Joh 9:6: comp. Mar 5:23, Mar 5:28, Mar 5:41, Mar 5:7:32, Mar 5:8:22). The fact that Jesus commonly used some action in healing made the Jews the more irate at His healing on the Sabbath. Excepting Act 17:25, θεραπεύω in N.T. is always “heal, cure,” not merely “serve, take care of.” Like colere, it is used of service both to God and to men; and like curare, it is both “to care for” and “to, cure.” The imperfects, ἐθεράπευεν and ἐξήρχετο, mark the continuarice and repetition of the actions.

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

When the sun was setting. The people brought their sick at that hour, not only because of the coolness, but because it was the end of the Sabbath, and carrying a sick person was regarded as work. See Joh 5:10. Diseases [νοσοις] . See on Mt 4:23. Wyc., Sick men with divers languishings.

Laid his hands on. Peculiar to Luke.

Everyone. "Implying the solicitude and indefatigableness of this miraculous ministry of love" (Meyer).

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