Luke 7:16

Luk 7:16. And there came a fear on all — All the people present, being sensible that Jesus showed, in this instance, not only the greatness of his power, but the truth of his mission from God, were seized with a religious awe and reverence, which had him for its object. And they glorified God — For the Lord and his goodness, as well as the Lord and his greatness, are to be feared and glorified; saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us. This was the inference which they drew from the miracle, that God had again graciously regarded his ancient people, by raising up among them an extraordinary prophet, as he had often done in former ages. It was indeed reasonable to conclude that the person must be divinely inspired, who could thus restore the dead to life; nay, and that he was the great prophet they had been long looking for, and that in and by him God had visited his people to redeem them, as was expected, Luk 1:68. This would be life from the dead indeed, to all them that waited for the consolation of Israel. And when dead souls are thus raised to spiritual life, by a divine power going along with the gospel, we must glorify God, and look upon it as his graciously visiting his people. And this rumour of him went forth — Wherever this miracle was reported, which was not only in Judea, but in all the neighbouring regions, it produced the same opinion in those who heard of it, namely, that God had visited his people in an extraordinary way, and had raised up among them a very eminent prophet, which greatly heightened and increased the mighty expectations from him, which long before they had begun to entertain. “The ancients,” says Grotius, “observe, that in three of the miracles, performed by Jesus after his sermon on the mount, the three kinds of God’s benefits are represented to us: 1st, Of those which are conferred upon our suing to God for them ourselves, as in the case of the leper. 2d, Of those which are obtained for us by the prayers of others, as in the case of the centurion’s servant. And, 3d, Of those which God bestows out of his own free mercy, as in the present case. To which kind of mercy the apostles very justly refer the calling of the Gentiles.”

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

7:16 A mighty prophet: Jesus was like Elijah and Elisha.

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

Luk 7:16. Προφήτης, a prophet) Hebr. נביא is not only one who predicts the future, but one who imparts to men divine gifts, lessons.—καὶ ὅτι) By this formula the two epiphonemata [exclamations subjoined to the narrative which gave rise to them] are divided from one another.—[ἐπεσκέψατο, hath visited) For that visitation we have even still reason to celebrate the divine love to man, φιλανθρωπία.—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_7:16-17. Φόβος] Fear, the first natural impression, Luk_5:26.

ὅτι … καὶ ὅτι] not recitative (so usually), but argumentative (Bornemann), as Luk_1:25 : (we praise God) because … and because. The recitative ὅτι occurs nowhere (not even in Luk_4:10) twice in the same discourse; moreover, it is quite arbitrary to assume that in the second half, which is by no means specifically different from the first, we have the words of others (Paulus, Kuinoel, Bleek).

They saw in this miracle a σημεῖον of a great prophet, and in His appearance they saw the beginning of the Messianic deliverance (comp. Luk_1:68; Luk_1:78).

ὁ λόγος οὗτος] This saying, namely, that a great prophet with his claim made good by a raising from the dead, etc.

ἐν ὅλῃ τ. Ἰουδ.] a pregnant expression: in the whole of Judaea, whither the saying had penetrated. Comp. Thucyd. iv. 42: ἐν Λευκαδίᾳ ἀπῄεσαν. Judaea is not here to be understood in the narrower sense of the province, as though this were specified as the theatre of the incident (Weizsäcker), but in the wider sense of Palestine in general (Luk_1:5); and by ἐν πάσῃ τῇ περιχώρῳ, which is not to be referred to the neighbourhood of Nain (Köstlin, p. 231), it is asserted that the rumour had spread abroad even beyond the limits of Palestine.

περὶ αὐτοῦ] so that He was mentioned as the subject of the rumour. Comp. Luk_5:15.

REMARK.

The natural explanation of this miracle as of the awakening of a person only apparently dead (Paulus, Ammon; comp. Schleiermacher, L. J. p. 233) so directly conflicts with the Gospel narrative, and, moreover, places Jesus in so injurious a light of dissimulation and pretence, that it is decisively to be rejected, even apart from the fact that in itself it would be improbable, nay monstrous, to suppose that as often as dead people required His help, He should have chanced every time upon people only apparently dead (to which class in the end even He Himself also must have belonged after His crucifixion!). Further, the allegorical explanation (Weisse), as well as also the identification of this miracle with the narrative of the daughter of Jairus (Gfrörer, Heil. Sage, I. p. 194), and finally, the mythical solution (Strauss), depend upon subjective assumptions, which are not sufficient to set aside the objective historical testimony, all the more that this testimony is conjoined, in respect of the nature of the miracle, with that of Matthew (Jairus daughter) and that of John (Lazarus); and to suspect the three narratives of raisings from the dead taken together because of the gradual climax of their attendant circumstances (Woolston, Strauss: death-bed, coffin, grave) is inadmissible, because Luke has not the history of the raising on the death-bed until later (Luk_8:50 ff.), and therefore was not consciously aware of that progression to a climax. The raisings of the dead, attested beyond all doubt by all the four evangelists, referred to by Jesus Himself among the proofs of His divine vocation (Mat_11:5; Luk_7:22), kept in lively remembrance in the most ancient church (Justin, Ap. i. 48. 22; Origen, c. Cels. ii. 48), and hence not to be left on one side as problematical (Schleiermacher, Weizsäker), are analogous σημεῖα of the specific Messianic work of the future ἀνάστασις νεκρῶν.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 7:16 . φόβος : the awe natural to all, and especially simple people, in presence of the preternatural. προφήτης μέγας , a great prophet, like Elisha, who had wrought a similar miracle at Shunem, near by (2Ki 4 ). ἐπεσκέψατο , visited graciously, as in Luk 1:68 ; Luk 1:78 .

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

Vers. 16, 17. The Effect produced.

On the feeling of fear, see chap. Luk 5:8.

A great prophet: a greater than John the Baptist himself, a prophet of the first rank, such as Elijah or Moses. The second expression: God hath visited..., is more forcible still; it suggests more than it expresses. The expression: this saying [this rumour, A. V.], might be referred to the fame of the miracle which was immediately spread abroad. But the words περὶ αὐτοῦ, concerning Him, which depend, as in Luk 7:15, on λόγος οὗτος, rather incline us to refer this expression to the two preceding exclamations (Luk 7:16): “This manner of thinking and speaking about Jesus spread abroad.” It is an indication of progress in the development of the work of Jesus. In order to explain into Judaea, Keim (i. p. 72) unceremoniously says: Luke just makes Nain a city of Judaea. But the term ἐξήλθεν, literally: went out, signifies the very contrary; it intimates that these sayings, after having filled Galilee (their first sphere, understood without express mention), this time passed beyond this natural limit, and resounded as far as the country of Judaea, where they filled every mouth. There is no necessity, therefore, to give the word Judaea here the unusual meaning of the entire Holy Land, as Meyer and Bleek do. The reason why this detail is added, is not in any way what Köstlin’s acute discernment surmised in order to build upon it the critical hypothesis that the narrative is of Judaean origin. These words are intended to form the transition to the following passage. John was in prison in the south of the Holy Land, in the neighbourhood of Judaea (in Peraea, in the castle of Machaerus, according to Josephus). The fame of the works of Jesus, therefore, only reached him in his prison by passing through Judaea. The words: and through out all the region round about, which refer especially to the Peraea, leave no doubt as to the intention of this remark of Luke. It forms the introduction to the following narrative.

There is a difficulty peculiar to this 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 son 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. And as to faith, many facts prove that not in any miracle is it to be regarded as a dynamical factor, but only as a simple moral condition related to the spiritual aim which Jesus sets before Himself in performing the wonderful work.

Keim, fully sensible of the incompetency of any psychological explanation to account for such a miracle, has recourse to the mythical interpretation of Strauss in his first Life of Jesus. We are supposed to have here an imitation of the resurrection of dead persons in the Old Testament, particularly of that wrought by Elisha at Shunem, which is only a short league from Nain. These continual changes of expedients, with a view to get rid of the miracles, are not calculated to recommend rationalistic criticism. And we cannot forbear reminding ourselves here of what Baur urged with so much force against Strauss on the subject of the resurrection of Lazarus: that a myth that was a creation of the Christian consciousness must have been generally diffused, and not have been found in only one of our Gospels. Invention by the author (and consequently imposture) or history, is the only alternative.

From the omission of this miracle in Matthew and Mark, the advocates of the opinion that a proto-Mark was the common source of the Syn., conclude that this narrative was wanting in the primitive document, and that Luke added it from special sources. But if this were only a simple intercalation of Luke’s, his narrative would coincide immediately afterwards with those of Mark and Matthew. Unfortunately there is no such coincidence. Matthew, after the cure of the centurion’s servant, relates the cure of Peter’s mother-in-law, and a number of incidents which have nothing in common with those which follow in Luke. And Mark, who has already omitted the preceding fact, although it should have been found, according to this hypothesis, in the proto-Mark,—for that is where Matthew must have taken it from,—does not fall, after this omission, into the series of facts related by Luke. After the day of the Sermon on the Mount, he places a series of incidents which have no connection with those that follow in Luke. And yet the boast is made, that the dependence of the three Syn. on a primitive Mark has been shown to demonstration! As to Bleek, who makes Mark depend on the other two, he does not even attempt to explain how Mark, having Luke before his eyes, omitted incidents of such importance.

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.

visited his people--more than bringing back the days of Elijah and Elisha (Kg1 17:17-24; Kg2 4:32-37; and see Mat 15:31).

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 16. God hath visited his people.] Several MSS. and versions add, εις αγαθον, for good. Sometimes God visited his people in the way of judgment, to consume them in their transgressions; but it was now plain that he had visited them in the most tender compassion and mercy. This seems to have been added by some ancient copyist, by way of explanation.

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

(16) A great prophet.—This, we must remember, was the first instance of our Lord’s power as put forth to raise the dead, that of Jairus’s daughter following in Luk_8:40-56. In the history of the Old Testament there were examples of such wonders having been wrought by Elijah (1Ki_17:22) and Elisha (2Ki_4:34), and the people drew the natural inference that here there was at least a prophet of the same order.

That God hath visited his people.—The same word as in Luk_1:68; Luk_1:78, where see Notes.

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

16. a great prophet] The expectation of the return of Elijah, Jeremiah, or “one of the Prophets” was at that time widely spread. See on Luk_9:8; Luk_9:19.

God hath visited his people] Compare Luk_1:68; Joh_3:2.

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 there came a fear on all,.... That were there present, and heard, and saw what was done. Not a fear of dread, and terror, and of punishment, as in devils and wicked men; but a fear and reverence of the divine majesty, whose power and presence they were sensible must be there at that time:

and they glorified God; they praised him, and gave thanks to him, ascribing this amazing action to divine power, and gave God the glory of it; and blessed him for the Messiah, who was sent unto them, as they concluded Jesus to be, from this wonderful instance:

saying, that a great prophet is risen up among us; even that great prophet Moses wrote of, and said should be raised up from among the children of Israel, Deu 18:15 and that God hath visited his people. The Arabic version adds, "for good". For God sometimes visits for evil, in a wave of wrath and sore displeasure; but this was a visitation for good: they concluded that God had looked upon them with a look of love, and had a gracious regard to them, and had sent them the Messiah, who, they hoped, would deliver them from the Roman yoke; as he had formerly looked upon, and visited their fathers, and sent a redeemer to them, to deliver them from Egyptian bondage. The Ethiopic version renders it, "and God hath mercy on his people"; and the Persic version, "God hath looked upon his people, and hath taken care of them."

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

16 And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.

Ver. 16. And there came a fear upon all] This was timor amicalis, a fear of reverence, for it produced thankfulness.

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.

Came a fear on all - An “awe” or solemnity at the presence of one who had power to raise the dead, and at the miracle which had been performed.

Glorified God - Praised or honored God that he had sent such a prophet.

And, That God hath visited his people - Some said one thing and some another, but all expressing their belief that God had showed special favor to the people.

Hath visited - See Luk 1:68.

The raising of this young man was one of the most decisive and instructive of our Lord’s miracles. There was no doubt that he was dead. There could be no delusion, and no agreement to impose on the people. He came near to the city with no reference to this young man; he met the funeral procession, as it were, by accident, and by a word he restored him to life. All those who had the best opportunity of judging - the mother, the friends - believed him to be dead, and were about to bury him. The evidence that he came to life was decisive. He sat up, he spoke, and “all” were impressed with the full assurance that God had raised him to life. Many witnesses were present, and none doubted that Jesus “by a word” had restored him to his weeping mother.

The whole scene was affecting. Here was a widowed mother who was following her only son, her stay and hope, to the grave. He was carried along - one in the prime of life and the only comfort of his parent - impressive proof that the young, the useful, the vigorous, and the lovely may die. Jesus met them, apparently a stranger. He approached the procession as if he had something important to say; he touched the bier and the procession stood still. He was full of compassion for the weeping parent, and by a word restored the youth, stretched upon the bier, to life. He sat up, and spoke. Jesus therefore had power over the dead. He also has power to raise sinners, dead in trespasses and sins, to life. He can speak the word, and, though in their death of sin they are borne along toward ruin, he can open their eyes, and raise them up, and restore them revived to real life or to their friends. Often he raises up children in this manner, and gives them, converted to God, to their friends, imparting as real joy as he gave to the widow of Nain by raising her son from the dead, And every child should remember, if he has pious parents, that there is “no way” in which he can give so much joy to them as by embracing Him who is the resurrection and the life, and resolving to live to his glory.

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

And there came a fear on them all; i.e. a certain reverential awe and trepidation seized them, and an uncommon degree of astonishment at the divinity which appeared to them. (Menochius) --- And they glorified God: (Greek: edoxazan) they gave praise and glory to God for thus visiting his people, by sending them the Saviour he had promised them. (Polus, synop. crit.)

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).

The people here saw the Divine power manifestly exerted; for the keys of the clouds, the womb, and the grave, are three keys, which their teachers had taught them were kept in God’s hand alone. All sense of the Divine presence naturally fills us with fear. Some, even the worst of men, are filled with a stupid fear of astonishment and amazement. Pious persons, or those that are inclined to piety, are filled with a fear of reverence; such a fear we read of, Luk 1:65. Such was this; for it issued in a predication of the name of God, and a giving to him praise and glory; for that a great Prophet was risen amongst them. Thus far God blessed this miracle, to make them look upon Christ as a Prophet, a great Prophet; and to look upon God’s act in his sending him as an act of great kindness to the Jews, for that is here plainly understood by them, saying,

God hath visited his people, as before, Luk 1:68; and this rumour was spread abroad throughout all that country.

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

16. They glorified God—Truly the miracle has not been in vain, if it has awakened dead souls to life. Who knows how many true Christian converts remained faithful in this sweet Nain, (the name in Hebrew signifies pleasant,) and who knows what numbers now sleep in the many tombs that, at the present day, stand thick upon the eastern side of the slope, who in eternity shall rejoice over the mighty work of that day?

A great prophet—Greater than Elijah, who indeed raised the dead, but with what pains and multiplied efforts! Jesus speaks the resurrection word, and it is done. And yet the evangelist narrates it in the simplest style, without any purpose of displaying the superiority of Jesus by the comparison.

Fear—glorified—This is a remarkable blending of awe at the display of divine power, and joy at the divine mercy. So God is truly said to be “fearful in praises.” Exo_15:11.

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

And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people. With the exception of two or three like the centurion, whose sick servant was healed, this was the general conception which the people had of Jesus a fear is mentioned in this place the natural result of the marvellous works, especially those worked in the case of the already dead, but nothing more. The sublime humility of the great Wonder-worker failed to persuade the bulk of men and women with whom he came in contact. They could not look on this quiet Rabbi-Physician, who gently put all state and pomp and glory aside, as the Divine Messiah; but that in Jesus Israel possessed a great Prophet the people were persuaded they recognized that at last, after four long centuries of absence, God again had visited his people. There had arisen in the coasts of Israel no prophet of the Highest since the far-back days of Malachi, some four hundred years before the days of the Lord and his forerunner John.

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

16, 17. Came a fear. A sense of awe. That a great prophet. Not even the apostles had yet confessed him as the Christ.

Throughout all Judaea. The story seems even to have reached John in prison, east of the Dead Sea.

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.

Connecting Statement:

This tells what happens as a result of Jesus' healing the man who had died.

fear overcame all of them

"fear filled all of them." This can be stated in active form. AT: "they all became very afraid" (See: Active or Passive)

A great prophet has been raised among us

They were referring to Jesus, not to some unidentified prophet. "Raised" here is an idiom for "caused to become." This can be stated in active form. AT: "God has caused one of us to become a great prophet" (See: Active or Passive) (See: Idiom)

looked upon

This idiom means "cared for" (See: Idiom)

This news about Jesus spread

"This news" refers to the things people were saying in verse 16. This can be stated in active form. AT: "People spread this report about Jesus" or "People told others this report about Jesus"

This news

"This report" or "This message"

translationWords

fear

praise

God

prophet

people of God

Judea

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

16. ἠγέρθη. אABCL. ἐξηγέρθη, D. Rec[153] ἐγήγερται.

[153] Rec. The Textus Receptus.

16. προφήτης μέγας. The expectation of the return of Elijah, Jeremiah, or “one of the Prophets” was at that time widely spread. See on Luk 9:8; Luk 9:19.

ἐπεσκέψατο. Compare Luk 1:68; Luk 1:78; Joh 3:2.

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.

16.] φόβος, the natural result of witnessing a direct exhibition of divine power: compare ch. 5:8.

προφ. μέγ.] For they had only been the greatest of prophets who had before raised the dead,—Elijah and Elisha; and the Prophet who was to come was doubtless in their minds. Bornemann supposes ὅτι in both cases to be not merely ὅτι loquentis, but ‘for that,’ and to be connected with ἐδόξαζον (but qu.?).

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

16. Ἔλαβεν δὲ φόβος πάντας. It is natural that this should be the first feeling on seeing a corpse reanimated. But a writer of fiction would rather have given us the frantic joy of the mother and of those who sympathized with her. Comp. 1:65, 5:8, 26, 8:37; Act 2:43, Act 19:17. See on 1:12, and also Schanz, ad loc.

λέγοντες ὅτι … καὶ ὅτι. It is very forced to make ὅτι in both cases argumentative: “Saying, (We praise God) because … and because.” It is possible to take the second ὅτι in this way; but the common method of making both to be recitative is preferable. Both, therefore, are to be omitted in translation, the words quoted being in the oratio recta (Tyn. Cran. Cov. RV.). Cases in which ὅτι may be taken either way are freq. in N.T. (1:45, 2:11, 4:36, 7:39, 9:22, 10:21, 11:38, 22:70; 1Jn 2:12-14, etc.).

Ἐπεσκέψατο ὁ θεὸς τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ. Comp. 1:68, 78; Act 15:14; Heb 2:6. The verb was specially used of the “visits” of a physician. Comp. Mat 25:36, Mat 25:43; Jas 1:27; Act 6:3, Act 7:23, Act 15:36, the only other passages in N.T. in which the word occurs. In the sense of visiting with judgment or punishment it is never used in N.T. and but seldom in LXX (Ps. 88:33; Jer 9:9, Jer 9:25, Jer 9:11:22, 51:29). After the weary centuries during which no Prophet had appeared, it was indeed a proof of Jehovah’s visiting His people that one who excelled the greatest Prophets was among them. No one in O. T. raised the dead with a word.

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

There came a fear on all [ελαβεν δε φοβος απαντας] . Lit., as Rev., fear took hold on all.

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