16. Judas. See on Thaddaeus, Mark iii. 18. Judas Iscariot. See on Matt. x. 4.
17. In the plain (ét toov wedivod). There is no article. More literally, and better, as Rev., in a plain or level place. There is a discrepancy in the two narratives. Matthew says he went up into the mountain and sat down. Vv. 17-19 are peculiar to Luke.
Judaea and Jerusalem. See on ch. v. 17.
18. Vexed (dyAovpevor). The best texts read évoyovpevot, occurring only here and Heb. xii. 15. From éyAos, a crowd or mob, with the idea of want of arrangement and discipline, and therefore of confusion and tumult. Hence it is applied to the noise and tumult of a crowd, and so passes into the sense of the trouble and annoyance caused by these, and of trouble generally, like the Latin turbae. Thus Herodotus says of Croesus, when on the funeral-pile he uttered the name of Solon, and the inter- preters begged him to explain what he meant, “ and as they
Cu. V1.] LUKE. 309
pressed for an answer and grew troublesome (Kai dydov trape- xyovrwv) ”—I., 86. Frequent in medical language. Thus Hip- pocrates, “ troubled (é€voxNoupeévp) with a spasm or tetanus.”
19. Sought—went out (€fjrovv—eEjpyero). Both imper- fects. The A. V.and Rev. lose in vividness by not rendering them accordingly. The multitudes were all the while seeking to touch him, for virtue was going out of him.
Healed (aro). Compare Matt. xiv. 36; Mark vi. 56, where dvecwoInaav, were thoroughly saved, and érafovto, were saved, are used. Luke is more technical, using the strictly medical term, which occurs twenty-eight times in the New Testament, seven- teen of these in Luke. Luke also uses the two words employed by Matthew and Mark, but always with some addition showing the nature of the saving. Thus Luke vii. 3, where dsacaon (A. V., heal) is explained by ver. 7, ‘adjoerat, the technical word, shall be healed, and by ver. 10, “found the servant whole (ae aivovta, another professional ordlace on ch. v. 31) that had been sick.” Compare, also, Luke viii. 35, 36, 44,47,48. Medi- cal writers do not use cafe or Se ecsreios to save, as equivalent to tac 9az, to heal, but in the sense of escaping from a severe ill- ness or from some calamity. Luke employs it in this sense— Acts xxvii. 44; xxviii. 1.
Tur Sermon on THE Mount.
20-49. Compare Matt. v. 1 to viii. 1. 90. Lifted up his eyes. Peculiar to Luke. Compare he
opened his mouth (Matt. v. 1). Both indicate a solemn and im- pressive opening of a discourse.
Blessed. See on Matt. v. 3.
Ye poor. See on Matt. v. 3. Luke adopts the style of di- rect address; Matthew of abstract statement.
310 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. VI.
Kingdom of God (7 Bacirela Tod Jeod). Matthew has keng- dom of heaven, or of the heavens (rv otpavdv), a phrase used by him only, and most frequently employed by Christ himself to describe the kingdom ; though Matthew also uses, less fre- quently, kingdom of God. The two are substantially equiva- lent terms, though the pre-eminent title was kingdom of God, since it was expected to be fully realized in the Messianic era, when God should take upon himself the kingdom by a visible representative. Compare Isa. xl. 9, “ Behold your God.” The phrase kingdom of Heaven was common in the Rabbinical writ- ings, and had a double signification: the Azstorical kingdom and the spiritual and moral kingdom. They very often under- stood by it divine worship; adoration of God, the sum of religious duties ; but also the Messianic kingdom.
The kingdom of God is, essentially, the absolute dominion of God in the universe, both in a physical and a spiritual sense. It is ‘an organic commonwealth which has the principle of its existence in the will of God” (Tholuck). It was foreshadowed in the Jewish theocracy. The idea of the kingdom advanced toward clearer definition from Jacob’s prophecy of the Prince out of Judah (Gen. xlix. 10), through David’s prophecy of the everlasting kingdom and the king of righteousness and peace (Ps. xxii., Ixxii.), through Isaiah, until, in Daniel, its eternity and superiority over the kingdoms of the world .are brought strongly out. For this kingdom Israel looked with longing, ex- pecting its realization in the Messiah; and while the common idea of the people was narrow, sectarian, Jewish, and political, yet “there was among the people a certain consciousness that the principle itself was of universal application ” (Tholuck). In Daniel this conception is distinctly expressed (vii. 14-27 ; iv. 25 ; ii. 44). In this sense it was apprehended by John the Baptist.