2. 'Hp'epai, days) The nominative of time, there is, or there are, being understood, forms an absolute mode of expression, Luke ix. 28.
3. Ting, some of them) Those who had come a greater dis tance were more in want ; and it is on account of these that even the rest are supplied with food. \_This clause is also a portion of Jesus' words. — V. g.] [/taxp&n^ from far) impelled by a re markable zeal. — V. g.] — qxouffi, they are come) The verb %xu signifies, in the present time [tense], / am already come, and / am here, rather than I am coming. They who have substituted qxaffi in this passage, do not seem to have considered this force of the verb ; see on Rev. ii. 25. l
6, 7. Euxapiffrfaas — jyXoyjjtfac, giving thanks — blessing) Syno nyms. They do right in taking food, who pray over the several courses. — xai aura, them also) Implying the liberal bountiful- ness of the feast.
1 Tiscli. reads tla'iv instead of 'qxovaiy, with BLA Memph. ; but Lachm. yncfai with AD ; ' venerunt,' abc Vulg. — ED. and TRANSL.
11. "Hp^avTo, they began) after a temporary cessation,
^ovrsg aurbv, tempting Him) to try whether He could, after hav ing exhibited so many signs on the earth, perform similar signs from heaven also. — V. g-]
12. ' Ava<rrfva%as) When He has betaken Himself to [having commenced] sighing. The word is inchoative or inceptive, as «!/a/3oaw, etc. And yet to begin to groan or sigh remains a TG^OJ, or mental emotion.1
15. Tuv 3>vt,piffaiwv xai 'HpwSoy, of the Pharisees and Herod} Two opposite extremes of religious sects. In Matt. xvi. 6, where see note, the words are, " the Pharisees and Sadducees" Therefore, instead of what Matthew has, viz. the Sadducees, Mark has, Herod. The leaven common to them all, at least in demanding signs on various pretexts at different occasions, was hypocrisy (Herod is called " the fox," Luke xiii. 31, where see note). As to Herod, Luke does not mention that indeed (viz. his demanding a sign), at ch. xii. 1, but he does at ch. xxiii. 8, as it were in the way of supplement. For although Herod approached nearer to the Pharisees in the article of the resurrection, ch. vi. 1 6, yet the licentiousness admitted by the doctrine of the Sadducees, was in other respects more suited to his palace and court, which bent religion into a mere species of political expediency.
1 7. [T/ oial.oyl&ffd?, X.S-.A.) The sense of the discourse moves for ward by distinct interrogations, as far as to the verb pvr^oviutrt, ver. 18, inclusive. — Not. Crit.~] — mvupuftintVf hardened) Harden ing flows on from the heart to the sight, the hearing, and the memory; ver. 18.2
22. <S>'spovaiv, they bring) The blind man himself does not seem then as yet to have had knowledge of Jesus.
23. 'E7T/?.a/3o>£i/og, taking to Him) Himself was leading the way, illustrating His great humility. — XW^TJ;) Bethsaida is called
1 Not a premeditated act of the mind : though to begin to groan might seem to imply it was the latter. — ED. and TRANSL.
3 Ver. 21. va; ov ai/vifn; how is it that ye do not understand?) viz. that there cannot possibly be with Me any want of bread for you, and that, therefore, it is against a different kind of leaven I am warning you. — V. g. Lachm. reads TTU; ovvu with A Dae Vulg. Tisch. reads WKU without va$ with CA. BWread as Rec. Text w.— Eu. and TRANSL.