Luke 5:30

Luk_5:30

But the scribes and Pharisees murmur

The Friend of sinners

We cannot wonder at the scribes and Pharisees asking this question.

I think that we should most of us ask it now, if we saw the Lord Jesus going out of His way to eat and drink with publicans and sinners. Make merry with them He could not, but He certainly so behaved to them that they were glad to have Him among them, though He was so unlike them in thought, and word, and look, and action. And why? Because, though He was so unlike them in many things, He was like them at least in one thing. If He could do nothing else in common with them, He could at least eat and drink as they did, and eat and drink with them too. Yes. He was the Son of Man, the man of all men, and what He wanted to make them understand was that, fallen low as they were, they were men and women still, who were made at first in Gods likeness, and who could be redeemed back into Gods likeness again. The only way to do that was to begin with them in the very simplest way--to meet them on common human ground. Self-respect would begin to rise in those poor sinners hearts when our Lord came to them and ate and drank with them. (Charles Kingsley.)

Practical sympathy

A city missionary was one day visiting one of the lowest and most degraded courts in London, and a woman said something like this to him:--You say you care for us, and are anxious about us; but it is a very easy thing for you to come from your clean, quiet home just to visit us. Would you come and bring your family, and live in this court, expose yourself to all these evils day by day, in order to lift us up? The missionary felt he had hardly enough love for that: but Jesus dwelt with sinners, ate and drank with them as well as died to save them. (Biblical Treasury.)

Sympathetic help

A Boston minister a short time ago had occasion to look up a very poor family, and climbed up four flights of stairs in a noisome tenement house on his errand. His tap at the door was answered by Dr. Phillips Brooks, with a baby in his arms. Inquiry revealed the fact that the woman had been very lit, and sorely needed fresh air, but had no one with whom to leave her little baby. Phillips Brooks found her out, gave her tickets for a tram-car ride, and was staying tending the baby while she enjoyed it. Only from a large heart filled with the spirit of Christ could such an act of real kindness have sprung. (American Paper.)

Frigid selfishness

A great poet has represented the souls of thoroughly selfish men as encased in ice, alternately shivering and benumbed, with only enough of life to be conscious of the surrounding all-pervading death. This supreme selfishness, or rather indifference--this insensibility to What is generous and lofty, this prudent self-complacent, self-indulgent regard for ones own interests, is what our modern civilization, with its wonderful development of material wealth, has been drifting towards. And nothing can be more fatal to the highest interests and happiness of man. A splendid frost-work of society-sparkling like what we sometimes see around us after snow or rain on a winters day--as beautiful, but also as cold and as fatal to all spontaneous outgushing of warm and generous life. (J. H.Thompson.)

Christ in the company of social outcasts

The Jews and Egyptians, and indeed other peoples, were very scrupulous with whom they ate, much as are the Hindoos to the present day. It will be remembered that Joseph Gen_43:32) ate with his brethren apart, and the Egyptians by themselves, for it was an abomination to the latter to eat with Hebrews. And so the old Tobias, during the Assyrian captivity, exhorted his son not to eat and drink with sinners. Christ, by sitting down to table with these despised and excommunicate publicans, add with heathen, broke through the caste rules, of which separation at table was the most conspicuous symbol. He showed that this holding aloof from others, whether it were national or individual, was contrary to the principles of the gospel, against the fundamental laws of His Church. (S. Baring-Gould, M. A.)

The Saviour and the publicans

This question was asked partly in ignorance and partly in ill-will. Our Lord would not leave to His simple and timid disciples the task of answering the critics. First, He rebukes with stern irony the self-righteousness of the questioners, and then He explains.

I. THE ANSWER SET FORTH THE GLORY OF OUR DIVINE SAVIOUR. The Friend of sinners is one of our Lords most glorious titles. Gods condescensions reveal His glory more completely than His magnificence.

1. The glory of His work-To call Sinners to repentance.

2. The glory of His character--, Which of you convinceth Me of sin?

II. A COMMENT ON THE ACTION AND HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. Like her Lord, the Church of Christ has entered into the life of sinful humanity to purify and elevate it. She may not cease to eat and drink with publicans and sinners.

III. SUGGESTIVE AS TO THE DUTY AND CONDUCT OF PRIVATE CHRISTIANS. In consorting with those who openly deny the truth of religion, or who live in flagrant violation of its precepts, there are two dangers to be guarded against.

1. We must keep clear of Pharisaism, that rank weed which so soon springs up in the souls of believers.

2. We must not voluntarily expose our souls to risks which are palpable and overwhelming, when no good can be done for the souls of others. Let us endeavour, when we arc thrown with others, be they who they may, to think of our Lord at Matthews feast, and pray Him for His gracious help that we too, sinners though we be, may speak a word in season to him that is weary. (Canon Liddon.)

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

Luk 5:30-32. But their scribes and Pharisees murmured — The Pharisees of Capernaum, who knew both Matthew’s occupation and the character of his guests, were highly offended that Jesus, who pretended to be a prophet, should have deigned to go into the company of such men; so offended that they could not forbear condemning his conduct openly, by asking his disciples, with an air of insolence, in the hearing of the whole company, why he sat with publicans and sinners. Jesus answering, said, They that be whole, &c. — The Pharisees had not directed their discourse to Jesus, but having spoken so loud as to let all the guests hear their censure, he could not with propriety let it pass without showing the unreasonableness of it; which he does in a forcible manner, in these words: As if he had said, They that are in perfect health do not need the converse and advice of the physician, but those that are sick; and therefore, because of their need of him, he visits and converses with them, though it cannot otherwise be agreeable to him to do it; and I act on the same principles; for I am not come to call the righteous — As you arrogantly suppose yourselves to be, but such poor sinners as these; to repentance — Or, the persevering penitence, faith, and holiness of such as are truly righteous, is not so much the object of my attention, as the conversion of sinners. See a like form of expression, 1Co 1:17. Some commentators imagine that self- righteous persons are here spoken of; but the scope and connection of the passage evidently confirm the former meaning. Indeed it is not true that our Lord did not come to call self-righteous persons to repentance: he certainly came as much to call them as any other class of sinners. Such were the scribes and Pharisees, and many of his discourses were evidently levelled at them, and intended to bring them to a sense of their sin and danger, in order to their humiliation, self-abasement, and conversion. See this paragraph more fully explained in the notes on Mat 9:9-13; Mar 2:13-17.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:30 Meals were rituals of social status in the ancient world, and eating with someone meant social acceptance of that person. The Pharisees refused to eat with tax collectors and other sinners, or to enter their homes, believing that this would defile them. They expected Jesus, as a rabbi, to do the same. Jesus shattered social norms by dining with sinners and allowing sinful people to touch him (5:29; 7:39; 15:1). The religious leaders severely criticized him for this and derisively called him “a friend of tax collectors and other sinners” (7:34).

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

Luk 5:30. Ἐσθίετε, do ye eat) The Plural is used by them; but they were aiming at Jesus especially, as Luk 5:31 shows.

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

Luk 5:30 . οἱ φαρισαῖοι καὶ οἱ γραμ . αὐτῶν , the Pharisees, and the scribes connected with them, the professional men of the party. They were not of course guests, but they might if they chose look in: no privacy on such occasions in the East; or they might watch the strange company as they dispersed. ἐσθίετε καὶ πίνετε : addressed to the disciples. In the parallels the question refers to the conduct of Jesus though put to the disciples.

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

LEVI'S CALL AND FEAST. (Luk 5:27-32)

their scribes--a mode of expression showing that Luke was writing for Gentiles.

Next: Luke Chapter 6

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 30. Why do ye eat and drink, c.] See what passed at this entertainment considered at large on Mt 9:10-17 Mr 2:15-22.

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

(30) Murmured.—Better, were murmuring. In reporting what was said by others, St. Luke naturally gives the word “sinners” as it was actually spoken.

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

30. their scribes and Pharisees] Some MSS. read ‘the Pharisees and their scribes,’ i. e. those who were the authorised teachers of the company present. The scribes (Sopherîm from Sepher ‘a book’) were a body which had sprung up after the exile, whose function it was to copy and explain the Law. The ‘words of the scribes’ were the nucleus of the body of tradition known as ‘the oral law.’ The word was a general term, for technically the Sopherîm were succeeded by the Tanaîm or ‘repeaters’ from b. c. 300 to a. d. 220, who drew up the Halachôth or ‘precedents;’ and they by the Amoraim. The tyranny of pseudo-orthodoxy which they had established, and the insolent terrorism with which it was enforced, were denounced by our Lord (Luk_11:37-54) in terms of which the burning force can best be understood by seeing from the Talmud how crushing were the ‘secular chains’ in which they had striven to bind the free conscience of the people—chains which it became His compassion to burst (see Gfrörer, Jahrh. d. Heils, i. 140).

murmured against his disciples] They had not yet learnt to break the spell of awe which surrounded the Master, and so they attacked the ‘unlearned and ignorant’ Apostles. The murmurs must have reached the ears of Jesus after the feast, unless we imagine that some of these dignified teachers, who of course could not sit down at the meal, came and looked on out of curiosity. The house of an Oriental is perfectly open, and any one who likes may enter it.

with publicans and sinners] Rather, “with the publicans and sinners”. The article is found in nearly all the uncials.

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 their Scribes and Pharisees,.... Not the Scribes of the publicans and sinners that sat down, but the Scribes of the people in general; the Scribes of the Jewish nation: all the eastern versions leave out the word "their":

murmured against his disciples, saying; or, "murmured, and said unto his disciples", as the Syriac and Persic versions render it: that is, they either murmured at the publicans and sinners sitting down at meat; or "against him", as the Ethiopic version reads: either against Matthew for inviting them; or rather against Christ for sitting down with them: and not caring to speak to him, address themselves to his disciples in these words,

why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? The other evangelists represent these as saying, why does he, or your master, eat with such? doubtless, they included both Christ, and his disciples; though they chiefly designed him, and to bring an accusation against him, and fix a charge upon him, in order to render him odious to the people.

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

But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples. Many of the older authorities here omit "their" autwn before "scribes." The older authorities vary slightly in the position of the words here. The best reading and translation would give, "The Pharisees and the scribes among them them," that is, among the Capernaites; in other words, "They among them who were Pharisees and scribes." These scribes (Hebrew, sopherim), under this appellation, first appear after the Exile. Their occupation was to copy and to expound the Law. They were the recognized teachers of the Jews, and seem to have succeeded that great and influential class or order, the "sons of the prophets," originally founded by Samuel. These "sons of the prophets" are repeatedly mentioned in the books of the Old Testament which treat of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The scribes were succeeded, in the year 300 B.C., by the tanaim (repeaters), under which name the scribes were officially, though apparently not popularly, known until A.D. 220, after which date these scribes were termed amoraim. The Talmud (Mishna and Gemara) may be said to have been the work of this great and enduring teacher order. The Talmud was finally closed in A.D. 490, by Rabbina Abina, the last of the amoraim. Why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners?

Vers. 30-39. The new and the old.

Two classes of persons are amazed and offended those to whom old ways and recognized canons of respectability were of the very essence of the religious life; and those whose minds occupied a sort of intermediate position, who had so far broken from the old, but had not yet received the spirit of the new time which had begun in Galilee. Here is this Rabbi, whose fame has spread far and wide, who is undoubtedly possessed of marvellous powers, associating with persons whom every respectable Hebrew shunned, accepting a tax-gatherer"s invitation, and freely mingling with the worthless folk found at a tax-gatherer"s table. What an outrage on social and religious decency! The scribes and Pharisees the one of these two classes murmur (observe, against the disciples; they do not dare to the Lord himself), "Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?" The disciples, simple, guileless souls, were probably unable to explain or account for their Master. He himself replies by quoting an Old Testament Scripture one of those great prophetic words which express the spirit of all true religion, and prefacing and following this quotation by sentences of searching irony. "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." How significant is every clause! "They that are whole." Will the murmurers take that description as appropriate to them? Then the Jesus whom they surround has nothing for them; his work is not for the self-righteous, but for the consciously sinful and needy. But "whoso" would be teachers of the people as they may be, let them go and learn the first lesson of Divine wisdom, viz. that it is the delight of God"s love to find out fatherless souls; that he is satisfied, not by formal acts of worship, rendered in mere obedience to usage, but by the seeking of poor outcasts from ordinance and society, by such fellowship with them as reveals the purpose, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." Now comes the moment at which, along with the Pharisees, the other of the two offended classes those occupying an intermediate position between the old and the new appears on the scene. Some disciples of the Baptist have been scanning the movements of the Prophet of Nazareth, and the feast just held gives increased force to their doubts and difficulties. The joyous life which Jesus and his followers are living contrasts with the sternly simple, ascetic life which they have been taught to regard as the best. Can the joyous life be right? Why the disregard of the outward signs of discipline? Why is he so lax with those whom he has called? The answer returned has an abiding interest for the Church in all times. First, observe Christ"s word with regard to the special issue raised; and, secondly, observe his setting forth of the general truth as to his gospel and kingdom.

I THE SPECIAL ISSUE IS FASTING. Jesus does not deny its utility. He fasted. Moreover, in his sermon from the mount, he recognized fasting as one of the elements of the religious life. What his saying bears on is its observance as a fixed habit or rule. The time, the rule, Christ teaches, must come from within. He goes to the root of the matter when he asks, "Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn?" There is nothing if there is not mourning. Mere non-eating is nothing; mere austerities are nothing. Self-denial for the sake of self-denial is nothing. It is the relation to spiritual ends, the power of interpreting and helping spiritual life, that gives any service its value. "How can you make these children mourn while I am with them? Their fasting, at present, would be wholly artificial. It is the worship in spirit and truth that I want. When they can really mourn, they will. Until then, let them rejoice." The days did come. The Bridegroom was taken from them. And they mourned..and still, as then, there are, as one has called them, "fast-days which God appoints souls." Christ"s disciples should have their retreats, when the round of pleasure or of care is given up, and the blessing of entire solitude with God is realized. Only, let these be, not because of a law made for them, but because of the law which the Lord, by the dealing of his Holy Spirit, writes within their own hearts. And, supposing the space for such retreats cannot be secured, remember there is a fasting which all can practise. All can abstain from self-pleasing and indulgence. All may consider whether it be not a duty to abstain from things lawful when the use of such things is an occasion of stumbling to their brethren. And all should recollect the grand old words, "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

II THE WORD AS TO FASTING BRINGS INTO SIGHT THE WHOLE QUESTION AS TO THE REQUIREMENTS AND THE NATURE OF THE TRUTH AS IT IS IN JESUS, Glance at the outstanding features of the ever-memorable parable between the thirty-sixth and the thirty-ninth verses.

1. The bearing of the sentence as to patching. The disciples of John and the Pharisees virtually ask that Jesus sew the new cloth, which is woven out of his Person and sacrifice, into an old rotten garment. The answer is "No; what has decayed and is waxing old is ready to vanish; let it go. When it comes to this, patching and mending is worthless policy. It does not benefit the old, whilst it spoils the new. The new will not hold to the seam of the old, and, when it gives way, not only is the rent made worse, but in the end the new must be rejected also." What is particularly meant by the similitude of the garment is the manner of life, that which forms the envelopment of the soul. As to this, Christ will have no patching. Christianity is not Judaism with something sewn on to it. It is not a conglomerate of religions. It comprehends all that is good anywhere. It destroys nothing. But it is a new robe. All that is old is made new. And so must it be with the character. It is not a mere amending at this point or at that that will suffice. Merely to sew a piece of the new cloth, to have a fragment of Christ"s religion patched to the old self, will that suffice? Verily no. Put off the old man. Put on the new. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

2. The bearing of the sentence as to wine. By this, as it would seem, the Lord means the inward spiritual principle, the grace best wine which goeth down smoothly, gliding through the lips of those that are asleep." This is not some compound of dregs of old wines; it has all the strength and flavour of the old, but it is new. It is the fruit of a grape which none but the Son of God could bruise; it is the product of a wine-press which none but he could tread; it has the power of a sustenance which none but he could infuse. And this new life must be put into new bottles. It demands forms of worship and action peculiar to itself forms of worship adapted at once to the richness of the sentiments and the simplicity of its utterance, the natural and becoming vehicles of its own voice of prayer and praise; forms of action in harmony at once with its spirituality and its humanity. It is too living and strong for any receptacle of its influence except that which has been created for and by itself. New wine and new bottles. Let the hearer of the Word ponder this. Note the point of junction between liberty and discipline in the Christian life. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." But to realize this liberty, the will presented to the Lord must be so opened and ordered that the movements of his love shall flow in, and the power of his grace shall be fulfilled. It is all of grace, but the new bottle is needed for the new wine. The Lord is very decided as to this. The principle of an entire subjection to God must be asserted over every impeding tendency. In our present state pains must go with prayers, that the heart be kept "believing, true, and clean," a wineskin fit for the new wine. Hereafter, in the eternal year of the Bridegroom-joy, it shall be otherwise. Then, they who wait upon the Lord shall "ran, and not be weary; and walk, and not faint."

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

sinners

Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").

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

30. καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς αὐτῶν. ‘And their Scribes,’ i.e. those Scribes who belonged to their party. BCL, Vulg[110] It[111] &c.

[110] Vulg. Vulgate.

[111] It. Old Latin Version (Itala).

30. ἐγόγγυζον. This Ionic onomatopœia is common in Hellenistic Greek.

οἱ Φαρισαῖοι καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς αὐτῶν. ‘The Pharisees and their scribes,’ i.e. those who were the authorised teachers of the company present. The Scribes (Sopherîm from Sepher ‘a book’) were a body which had sprung up after the exile, whose function it was to copy and explain the Law. The ‘words of the scribes’ were the nucleus of the body of tradition known as ‘the oral law.’ The word was a general term, for technically the Sopherim had been succeeded by the Tanaîm or ‘repeaters’ from B.C. 300 to A.D. 220, who drew up the Halachôth or ‘rules;’ and they by the Amoraim. The tyranny of pseudo-orthodoxy which they had established, and the terrorism with which it was enforced, were denounced by our Lord (Luk 11:37-54) in terms of which the burning force can best be understood by seeing from the Talmud how crushing were the ‘secular chains’ in which they had striven to bind the free conscience of the people—chains which it became His compassion to burst (see Gfrörer, Jahrh. d. Heils, I. 140).

πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ. They had not yet learnt to break the spell of awe which surrounded the Master, and so they attacked the ‘unlearned and ignorant’ Apostles. The murmurs must have reached the ears of Jesus after the feast, unless we imagine that some of these dignified teachers, who of course could not sit down at the meal, came and looked on out of curiosity. The house of an Oriental is perfectly open, and any one who likes may enter it.

μετὰ τῶν τελωνῶν καὶ ἁμαρτωλῶν. ‘With the publicans and sinners.’ The article is found in nearly all the uncials.

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.

30. ἐγόγγυζον οἱ φαρισαῖοι καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς αὐτῶν. The αὐτῶν means “the scribes of the Pharisees,” i.e. who belonged to that party. Some scribes were Sadducees. That this is the meaning is clear from Mar 2:16. It is pointless, and scarcely grammatical, to make αὐτῶν refer to the inhabitants of the place, who have not been mentioned. These scribes were probably not invited guests, but had entered during the meal, like the woman that was a sinner in the house of Simon. The Sinaiticus and other authorities omit αὐτῶν, doubtless because it was not clear what it meant.

For γογγύζω, which is not in Mk. or Mt., see Lft, on Php 2:14, and Kennedy, Sources of N.T. Grk. p. 39. The Atticists preferred τονθορύζω. Both are probably onomatop.—Note that here, as in vv. 31, 33 and 4:43, Lk. has πρός c. acc. after a verb of speaking, where Mk. (2:16-19) has the dat. See on 1:13.

Διὰ τί μετὰ τῶν τελωνῶν καὶ ἁμαρτωλῶν ἐθίετε; The single article (so in all three) brackets them as one class. In Mt. and Mk. the disciples are not included in the charge (ἐσθίει, not ἐσθίετε); but they both mention that the disciples were sitting at table with Jesus and the τελῶναι, and therefore were open to the charge, Lk., on the other hand, does not mention that the disciples were sitting at table, but his ἐσθίετε implies it. With διὰ τί comp. Exo 5:14.

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