Luke 8:55

8:55 her life returned: Like the raising of the widow’s son (7:15), the girl’s normal mortal life was restored. At the final resurrection, believers will receive immortal, glorified bodies (see study note on 24:39).

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

Luk 8:55 . τὸ πνεῦμα , her spirit returned = ψυχὴ in Act 20:10 . φαγεῖν : the order to give the resuscitated child food is not peculiar to Lk., but he places it in a more prominent position than Mk. to show that as she had been really dead she was now really alive and well; needing food and able to take it. Godet remarks on the calmness with which Jesus gave the order after such a stupendous event. “As simply as a physician feels the pulse of a patient He regulates her diet for the day.”

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

The corpse was laid out, and the wench received life, and rose out of the bed, that all the world might see, she was not only restored to life, but also void of all sickness.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

give her meat--(See on Mar 5:43).

Next: Luke Chapter 9

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 55. And he commanded to give her meat.] Though she was raised to life by a miracle, she was not to be preserved by a miracle. Nature is God's great instrument, and he delights to work by it; nor will he do any thing by his sovereign power, in the way of miracle, that can be effected by his ordinary providence. Again, God will have us be workers together with him: he provides food for us, but he does not eat for us; we eat for ourselves, and are thus nourished on the bounty that God has provided. Without the food, man cannot be nourished; and unless he eat the food, it can be of no use to him. So, God provides salvation for a lost world, and bestows it on every penitent believing soul; but he neither repents nor believes for any man. A man repents and believes for himself, under the succours of God's grace.

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

(55) Her spirit came again.—The precise form of expression is peculiar to St. Luke, and is, perhaps, characteristic of the more accurate phraseology that belonged to him as a physician.

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

And her parents were astonished,.... At the miracle that was wrought, to see their child restored to life; to see her arise, walk, and eat, being in perfect health and strength, and no disorder attending her;

but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done. The Ethiopic version reads, "what he had done, nor any thing that was done" not that the thing itself could be concealed, but the way and manner in which, and the means by which it was done, and the circumstances of it; how that by taking her by the hand, and commanding her to arise, she forthwith arose, and walked and ate: Christ's meaning is, that he would not have them take any pains to publish this affair, or to make it more known than was necessary; not to acquaint any person with the particulars of it, but keep them as private as they could: his reasons for this; see Gill on Mar 5:43.

Next: Luke Chapter 9

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

This returning of the souls again, to reanimate the bodies of those whom Christ and his apostles raised from death, (and especially Lazarus, who had been dead four days) doth evidently prove the immortality of the soul. From this place we may also conclusively infer against our adversaries, who say, that every one goeth straight to heaven or hell, that it is not probable that they were called from the one or the other; and therefore from some third place.

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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).

55. Commanded to give her meat—From miracle he hands her over to the usual means of life, honouring thereby the laws and course of nature, even after he had performed an act above the level of ordinary nature.

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

He commanded to give her meat. She had been grievously ill, sick, we know, even to death; and now that the old strength and health had come back again, the Master felt she would at once, after her long abstinence, need food. Even the child"s mother was not so motherly as Jesus.

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

55.] her spirit returned: see reff., in the former of which death had not taken place, but in the latter it had; so that no inference adverse to her actual death can be derived from the use of the word. The command to give her to eat, shews that she was restored to actual life with its wants and weaknesses; and in that incipient state of convalescence, which would require nourishment.

The testimony of Mark here precludes all idea of a recovery from a mere paroxysm—καὶ περιεπάτει. One who ἐσχάτως εἶχεν at the time of the father’s coming, and then died, so that it could be said of the minstrels and others who had time to assemble, εἰδότες ὅτι ἀπέθανεν,—could not, supposing that they were mistaken and she was only in a trance, have risen up and walked, and been in a situation to take meat, in so short a time after. Every part of the narrative combines to declare that the death was real, and the miracle a raising from the dead, in the strictest sense.

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

55. ἐπέστρεψεν τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτῆς. There can be no doubt that the Evangelist uses the phrase of the spirit returning to a dead body, which is the accurate use of the phrase. Only the beloved physician makes this statement. In LXX it is twice used of a living man’s strength reviving; of the fainting Samson (Jdg 15:19), and of the starving Egyptian (1Sa 30:12). Note that Lk. has his favourite παραχρῆμα, where Mk. has his favourite εὐθύς; and comp. ver. 44, 5:25, 18:43, 22:60.

διέταξεν αὐτῇ δοθῆναι φαγεῖν. This care of Jesus in commanding food after the child’s long exhaustion would be of special interest to Lk. In their joy and excitement the parents might have forgotten it. The charge is somewhat parallel to ἔδωκεν αὐτὸν τῇ μητπὶ αὐτοῦ (7:15) of the widow’s son at Nain. In each case He intimates that nature is to resume its usual course: the old ties and the old responsibilities are to begin again.

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