Luke 7:14

Luk 7:14. Ἣψατο, touched) A touch full of power.—σοροῦ, the bier) on which the youth seems to have been laid, rather than shut into [as in a coffin].—βαστάζοντες, the bearers) expecting help.—νεανίσκε, young man) Jesus knew that the youth who had died was not a daughter, but a son. He employed in such addresses, either the appellative, Mar 5:41, or else a proper name, Joh 11:43.—σοὶ λεγω, I say to thee) to thee, not as yet [as I shall at the general resurrection] to the other men.

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

Luk 7:14 . σοροῦ , the bier (here only in N. T.), probably an open coffin, originally an urn for keeping the bones of the dead. ἔστησαν : those who carried the coffin stood, taking the touch of Jesus as a sign that He wished this.

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

What mingled majesty and grace shines in this scene! The Resurrection and the Life in human flesh, with a word of command, bringing back life to the dead body; Incarnate Compassion summoning its absolute power to dry a widow's tears!

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

(14) He came and touched the bier.—The noun so translated is used by classical authors in various senses. Here the facts make it clear that it was after the Jewish manner of burial. It was not a closed-up coffin, like the mummy-cases of Egypt, but an open bier on which the corpse lay wrapped up in its winding-sheet and swathing bands, as in the description of the entombment of Lazarus (Joh_11:44) and of our Lord (Joh_20:6-7), with the sudarium, the napkin or handkerchief, laid lightly over the face. The immediate effect of the touch was that they who bore the bier “stood still.” They must have marvelled, that One who was known as a Teacher should touch that which most Rabbis would have avoided as bringing pollution, and their halting in their solemn march implied, perhaps, both awe, and faith that the touch could not be unmeaning.

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

14. touched the bier] Rather, ‘the coffin.’ Here again, as in the case of the leper (Luk_5:12), our Lord sacrificed the mere Levitical ceremonialism, with its rules about uncleanness, to a higher law. Jewish coffins were open, so that the form of the dead was visible.

Arise] Probably the single monosyllable Kum! Compare Luk_8:54; Joh_11:43; Act_9:40. How unlike the passionate tentative struggles of Elijah (1Ki_17:21) and Elisha (2Ki_4:35)!

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 he came and touched the bier,.... Or "bed", as the Syriac version renders it; and such was "the bier", or bed, on which one of three years old, and upward, was carried as above mentioned: so that on which Herod was carried to his grave is called "a bed", by Josephus (y). As for the bed, or bier, of what sort it was that they carried out their dead upon, take the following account: (z).

"formerly the rich carried out (their dead) upon a bed called Dargash, (which is said (a) to be a bed that was not platted with ropes, and is called a bed of fortune (b),) and the poor carried out (their dead) upon one that was called Celicah, (or Celibah, as sometimes read; and this was made in the form of an iron horn, on which they bound the corpse, that it might not fall; and it was called so, because it was made like a coup of birds (c) as the word is used in Jer 5:27) and the poor, were made ashamed; and therefore they ordered that all should carry out (their dead) on a Celicah, for the honour of the poor.''

To this Christ came near and touched: not that by his touching of that, the dead should be raised; but this he did as a signal, that the bearers should stop. The Jews (d) say, one of the charges that Jacob gave to his sons before his death, was, to:

"take care (says he) that no uncircumcised person, touch my bed, or "bier", lest the Shekinah remove from me; but, according to this order, do unto me, carry me, three on the north, three on the south, three on the east, and three on the west, &c.''

From whence it should seem, that a circumcised person, as Christ was, might touch a bier without offence, or hurt, and without contracting any ceremonial pollution: to touch a dead body, or the bone of man, or a grave, was forbidden by the law, Num 19:16 and so, according to the traditions of the elders (e), the stone that was rolled at the mouth of the sepulchre, and the, side of the sepulchre, defiled by touching; but I do not find that touching a bier was ever forbidden.

And they that bare him stood still: these are they that are called "the bearers of the bed", or "bier": and Maimonides (f) says,

"they carry the dead upon their shoulders to the grave; and the bearers of the bier are forbidden to put on their sandals, lest the latchet of any one of them should fail, and should be found to hinder him doing his duty.''

And elsewhere it is said (g),

"the bearers of the bed, or bier, and their deputies, and their deputies' deputies, both before the bier and after it, find whoever the bier stood in need of, were free;''

i.e. from reading the Shema, or, "hear, O Israel", &c. and from prayer: the reason of their having so many bearers was, because they carried the dead a great way to be buried. King Herod was carried after this manner two hundred furlongs from Jerusalem, to the castle of Herodion (h):

and he said, young man, I say unto thee, arise. The Ethiopic version adds, "and he arose": Christ spoke as one that had the keys of death and the grave; and divine power went along with his words, which raised the dead man to life; and full proof this is of the true and proper deity of Christ.

(y) De Bello Jud. l. 1. c. 33. sect. 11. (z) T. Bab. Moed Katon, fol. 27. 1, 2. (a) T. Hieros. Beracot, fol. 5. 4. (b) T. Bab. Nedarim, fol. 56. 2. (c) R. Sampson & Bartenora in Misn. Para, c. 12. sect. 9. (d) Bereshit Rabba, sect. 100. fol. 87. 4. (e) Misn. Oholot, c. 2. sect. 4. (f) Hilchot. Ebel, c. 4. sect. 2. 3. (g) Misn. Beracot, c. 3. sect. 1. (h) Josephus, ut supra. (De Bello Jud. l. 1. c. 33. sect. 11.)

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

14 And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.

Ver. 14. Young man, I say unto thee, Arise] Had he said as much to all the dead (as once he shall, Surgite, mortui, venite in iudicium) they had certainly all risen immediately.

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.

Here Christ shews that he raised the dead by his own power, and at his own command: I say to thee, arise. This shews that it is the voice of God that speaks; for the dead can hear the voice of him alone, according to St. John. Amen, I say to you, the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they who hear shall live. (St. John v. 25.) (Maldonatus) --- Our Saviour is not like Elias, weeping for the son of the widow of Sarepta; nor Eliseus, who applied his own body to the body of the dead child; nor Peter, who prayed for Tabitha: but he it is that calls the things that are not, as those that are; who speaks to the dead as to the living. (Titus Bostrensis)

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).

14. They that bare him stood still—Jesus, at the head of his attendants, was not unknown to them. The bearers of the bier obeyed the touch of his arresting hand. They trusted that this stoppage by the great prophet meant something.

I say—The Lord speaks as if the case of life and death was controlled by the will of this I.

Arise—And this utterance to the body is heard by the departed soul. In the land of spirits, the spirit receives the sudden message to return. For to call the dead to life requires the Lord of both worlds, who holds the keys of death and of Hades.

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

And he came and touched the bier. The young man was about to be buried in the Jewish manner, which differed from the Egyptian custom. The corpse was not laid in a coffin or mummy-case, but simply on an open bier, on which the dead lay wrapped in folds of linen; so Lazarus was buried at Bethany, and our Lord in his rock-tomb in Joseph of Arimathaea"s garden. A napkin, or sudarium, was lightly laid over the face. It was pollution for the living to touch the bier on which a corpse was lying. The bearers, in their amazement that one so generally respected and admired as was Jesus, the Teacher of Nazareth, at this period of his career, should commit so strange an act, would naturally at once stand still to see what next would happen. Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. The Lord of life performed his miracle over death in a very different fashion to those great ones who, in some respects, had anticipated or followed him in these strange deeds of wonder. Before they recalled the dead to life, Elijah mourned long over the sea of the widow of Sarepta, Elisha repeatedly stretched himself as he agonized in prayer upon the lifeless corpse of the Shunammite boy, Peter prayed very earnestly over the body of Dorcas at Lydda. The Master, with one solitary word, brings the spirit from its mysterious habitation back to its old earthly tenementK!" "Arise!" St. Augustine has a beautiful comment on the three miracles of raising the dead related in the Gospels. He has been saying that all our Lord"s works of mercy to the body have a spiritual reference to the soul; he then proceeds to consider them "as illustrations of Christ"s Divine power and love in raising the soul, dead in trespasses and sins, from every kind of spiritual death, whether the soul be dead, but not yet carried out, like the daughter of Jairus; or dead and carried out, but not buried, like the widow"s son; or dead, carried, and buried, like Lazarus. He who raised himself from the dead can raise all from the death of sin. Therefore let no one despair" (St. Augustine, "Sermon" 98., quoted by Bishop Wordsworth). Godet has a curious and interesting note on what he calls a difficulty peculiar to the miracle, owing to the absence of all moral receptivity in the subject of it. "Lazarus was a believer. In the case of the daughter of Jairus, the faith of the parents to a certain extent supplied the place of her personal faith. But here there is nothing of the kind. The only receptive element that can be imagined is the ardent desire of life with which this young man, the only sea of a widowed mother, had doubtless yielded his last breath; and this indeed is sufficient, for it follows from this that Jesus did not dispose of him arbitrarily."

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

14. Touched the bier. As a signal to stop. There was an authority in not only the words but the acts of the Lord which compelled obedience. Arise. This is the first time he spoke these words to the dead. It must have been to his disciples and the multitude a moment of suspense and wonder.

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.

14. τῆς σόρου. ‘The coffin.’ Here again, as in the case of the leper (Luk 5:12), our Lord sacrificed the mere Levitical ceremonialism, with its rules about uncleanness, to a higher law. Jewish coffins were open, so that the form of the dead was visible.

σοὶ λέγω. ‘To thee (dead though thou art) I say.’

ἐγέρθητι. Probably the single monosyllable Kûm! Compare Luk 8:54; Joh 11:43; Act 9:40. How unlike the passionate tentative struggles of Elijah (1Ki 17:21) and Elisha (2Ki 4:35)!

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.

14.] The σορός (= λάρναξ, Jos. Antt. xv. 3. 2) was an open coffin. There was something in the manner of our Lord which caused the bearers to stand still. We need not suppose any miraculous influence over them.

All three raisings from the dead are wrought with words of power,—‘Damsel, arise,’—‘Young man, arise,’—‘Lazarus, come forth.’ Trench quotes an eloquent passage from Massillon’s sermons (Miracles, p. 241),—‘Elie ressuscite des morts, c’est vrai; mais il est obligé de se coucher plusieurs fois sur le corps de l’enfant qu’il ressuscite: il souffle, il se rétrécit, il s’agite: on voit bien qu’il invoque une puissance étrangère; qu’il rappelle de l’empire de la mort une âme qui n’est pas soumise à sa voix: et qu’il n’est pas lui-même le maître de la mort et de la vie. Jésus-Christ ressuscite les morts comme il fait les actions les plus communes: il parle en maître à ceux qui dorment d’un sommeil éternel: et l’on sent bien qu’il est le Dieu des morts comme des vivans,—jamais plus tranquille que lorsqu’il opère les plus grandes choses.’

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

14. ἥψατο τῆς σοροῦ, οἱ δὲ βαστάζοντες ἔστησαν. Lk. Clearly intimates that the purpose of the touching was to make the bearers stand still. At such solemn times words are avoided, and this Wet sign sufficed. Perhaps it also meant that Jesus claimed as His own what Death had seized as his prey. Lk. equally clearly intimates that the resurrection was caused by Christ’s command. This is the case in all three instances of raising the dead (8:54; Joh 11:43). The σορός may be either the bier on which the body as carried, or the open coffin (probably wicker) in which it was laid (Gen 50:26; Hdt. 1:68, 3, 2:78, 1).

It is worth noting that βαστάζειν, which occurs twenty-seven times in N.T. (10:4. 11:27, 14:27, 22:10, etc.), is found only thrice in LXX.

σοὶ λέγω. “To thee I say, Arise.” To the mother He had said, “Weep not.” The σοί is emphatic. For this use of λέγω, almost in the sense of “I command,” comp. 11:9, 12:4, 16:9.

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

Touched. Not fearing the ceremonial defilement of contact with the dead.

The bier [σορος] . In classical Greek, originally, of a vessel for holding anything : sometimes of a cinerary urn. Here the open bier. Edersheim says "of wicker - work."

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