[4680] Not possess,' as in the A.V.
[4681] Taan. 12 a.
[4682] See Book III. ch. ii.
[4683] Demai ii 2.
[4684] Ber. 28 b.
[4685] Erub. 21 b, lines 12 and 11 from bottom.
[4686] Comp. vol. i. p. 540.
[4687] Ber. R. 35 ed. Warsh. p. 64 b, end.
[4688] This, and not lift so much as his eyes,' is the proper position of the words.
[4689] The word upon' should be left out.
[4690] So Bengel.
[4691] St. Matt. v. 20.
[4692] St. Luke xviii. 15-17.
[4693] St. Matt. xviii. 23-35.
[4694] St. Matt. xix. 1.
[4695] St. Luke xviii. 15-17.
[4696] St. Matt. xviii. 15-22.
[4697] St. Matt. xviii. 1-14, passim.
[4698] Ex. xxii. 3; Lev. xxv. 39, 47.
[4699] Accordingly, these servants could not have been bondservants,' as in the margin of the R.V.
[4700] Mark the emphatic position of the words in the original.
[4701] According to the better reading, the word all' in ver. 29 should be left out - and the omission is significant. The servant who promised to pay all' (ver. 26) promised more than he could possibly perform; while he who undertook what he might reasonably perform, did not say all.'
[4702] The Rabbinic Law was much more merciful than this apparently harsh (Roman or Herodian) administration of it. It laid it down that, just as when a person had owed to the Sanctuary a certain sum or his property, his goods might be distrained, but so much was to be deducted and left to the person, or given to him, as was needful for his sustenance, so was it to be between creditor and debtor. If a creditor distrained the goods of his debtor, he was bound to leave to the latter, if he had been a rich man, a sofa [to recline at table] and a couch and pillow; if the debtor had been a poor man, a sofa and a couch with a reed-mat [for coverlet] (Bab. Mets. 113 a and b). Nay, certain tools had to be returned for his use, nor was either the Sheriff-officer nor the creditor allowed to enter the house to make distraint. (As regards distraints for Vows, see Arach. 23 b, 24 a).
[4703] St. Matt. xviii. 35.
[4704] For example, Shem. R. 31.
[4705] u. s.
[4706] Bemidb. R. 19, ed. Warsh. p. 77 a.
[4707] Comp. Shem. R. 31. __________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER XX. CHRIST'S DISCOURSES IN PERÆA - CLOSE OF THE PERÆAN MINISTRY
(St. Luke xiii. 23-30, 31-35; xiv. 1-11, 25-35; xvii. 1-10.)
From the Parables we now turn to such Discourses of the Lord as belong to this period of His Ministry. Their consideration may be the more brief, that throughout we find points of correspondence with previous or later portions of His teaching.
Thus, the first of these Discourses, of which we have an outline, [4708] recalls some passages in the Sermon on the Mount,' [4709] as well as what our Lord had said on the occasion of healing the servant of the centurion. [4710] But, to take the first of these parallelisms, the differences are only the more marked for the similarity of form. These prove incontestably, not only the independence of the two Evangelists [4711] in their narratives, but, along with deeper underlying unity of thought in the teaching of Christ, its different application to different circumstances and persons. Let us mark this in the Discourse as outlined by St. Luke, and so gain fresh evidential confirmation of the trustworthiness of the Evangelic records.
The words of our Lord, as recorded by St. Luke, [4712] are not spoken, as in The Sermon on the Mount,' in connection with His teaching to His disciples, but are in reply to a question addressed to Him by some one - we can scarcely doubt, a representative of the Pharisees: [4713] Lord, are they few, the saved ones [that are being saved]?' Viewed in connection with Christ's immediately preceding teaching about the Kingdom of God in its wide and deep spread, as the great Mustard-Tree from the tiniest seed, and as the Leaven hid, which pervaded three measures of meal, we can scarcely doubt that the word saved' bore reference, not to the eternal state of the soul, but to admission to the benefits of the Kingdom of God - the Messianic Kingdom, with its privileges and its judgments, such as the Pharisees understood it. The question, whether few' were to be saved, could not have been put from the Pharisaic point of view, if understood of personal salvation; [4714] while, on the other hand, if taken as applying to part in the near-expected Messianic Kingdom, it has its distinct parallel in the Rabbinic statement, that, as regarded the days of the Messiah (His Kingdom), it would be similar to what it had been at the entrance into the land of promise, when only two (Joshua and Caleb), out of all that generation, were allowed to have part in it. [4715] Again, it is only when understanding both the question of this Pharisee and the reply of our Lord as applying to the Kingdom of the Messiah - though each viewing the Kingdom' from his own standpoint - that we can understand the answering words of Christ in their natural and obvious sense, without either straining or adding to them a dogmatic gloss, such as could not have occurred to His hearers at the time. [4716]