» + ποιῖτε αὐτος. The law of nature, says Rosenmiiller. Not quite.
Wetstein, indeed, gives copious instances of something similar in Greek and Roman writers and Rabbinical sources, and the modern science of comparative religion enables us to multiply them. But recent commentators (including Holtz., H.C.) have remarked that, in these instances, the rule is stated in negative terms. So, ¢.g., in Tobit,
132 m (with δια
Lk. xiii.
13. “™ Εἰσέλθετε διὰ τῆς * καὶ 5 εὐρύχωρος ἡ ὁδὸς ἡ ἀπάγουσα εἰς τὴν ἀπώλειαν, καὶ πολλοί
Υπ.
στενῆς πύλης: ὅτι "πλατεῖα ἡ πύλη.)
24. John εἶσιν οἱ εἰσερχόμενοι δι αὐτῆς: 14. ὅτι στενὴ ἡ πύλη,” καὶ Ἀτεθλιμ- n Lk xii, µένη ἡ ὁδὸς ἡ ἀπάγουσα cis τὴν ζωήν, καὶ ὀλίγοι εἰσὶν οἱ εὑρίσκοντες
24- ο here only in N. Τ., several times in Sept. only in the sense of contracted.
p here only in N. T., Sept. Ps. ciii. (iv.) 25.
q here
1 4 πυλη is wanting in $§ and many Fathers (Clem, Orig.), and omitted by W.H. and bracketed by Tisch. Weiss thinks it very suspicious.
1 Some copies have τι for οτι and omit η πνλη, but the text as it stands is approved by W.H. Tisch. brackets η πνλη.
iv. 15, 8 is, μηδενὶ ποιήσῃς, quoted by Hillel in reply to one who asked him to teach the whole law while he stood on one leg. So also in the saying of Con- fucius: ‘‘Do not to others what you would not wish done to yourself,” Legge, Chinese Classics, i. 191 f. The negative confines us to the region of fustice ; the positive takes us into the region of gener- osity or grace, and so embraces both law
prophets. We wish much more than we can claim—to be helped in need, encouraged in struggles, defended when misrepresented, and befriended when our back is at the wall. Christ would have us do all that in 2 magnanimous, benignant way; to be not merely δίκαιος but όν μον καὶ προφῆται: per- haps to a certain extent a current phrase = all that is necessary, but, no doubt, seriously meant; therefore, may help us to understand the statement in v. 17, “‘T came not to destroy, but to fulfil”’. The golden rule was Law and Prophets only in an ideal sense, and in the same sense only was Christ a fulfiller.—Vide Wendt, L. J., ii. 341.
Vv. 13, 14. The two ways (Lk. xiii, 23-25). From this pomt onwards we have what commentators call the Epilogue of the sermon, introduced with- out connecting particle, possibly no part of the teaching on the hill, placed here because that teaching was regarded as the best guide to the right way. The passage itself contains no clue to the right way except that it is the way of the few. The allegory also is obscure from its brevity. Is the gate at the beginning or end of the way, or are gate and way practically one, the way narrow because it passes through a narrow door- way? Possibly Christ’s precept was simply, “‘ enter through the narrow gate” or “door”? (θύρα, Luke’s word), all the rest being gloss.—wvAns, the large en- trance to an edifice or city, as distinct from θύρα, a common door; perhaps
chosen by Lk. because in keeping with the epithet στενῆς.- ὅτι, etc.: explana- tory enlargement to unfold and enforce the precept.— 688s: two ways are con- trasted, either described by its qualities andend. The “way” in the figure is a common road, but the term readily suggests a manner of life. The Christian religion is frequently called “the way” in Acts (ix. 2, xix. 9, etc.). The ντο road is characterised as πλατεῖα an εὐρύχωρος, broad and roomy, and as leading to destruction (ἀπώλειαν). The right way (and gate, ἡ πύλη, is to be retai in ver. 14, though omitted in 13) is described as τεθλιµµένη, narrow and contr » and as leading to life—{wyv, a pregnant word, true life, worth living, in which men realise the end of their being—the antithesis of ἀπώλεια. The one is the way of the many, πολλοί εἰσ.ν οἱ εἶσερ. ; the other of the few, ὀλίγοι . . . of εὑρίσκοντες. Note the word “ finding”. The way is so narrow or so untrodden that it may easily be missed. It has to be sought for. Luke su the idea of difficulty in squeezing in through the very narrow door. Both points of view have their analogue in life. The practi- cal application of this counsel requires spiritual discernment. No verbal direc- tory will help us. Narrow? Was not Pharisaism a narrow way, and the mon- astic life and pietism with its severe rules for separation from the “world” in amusement, dress, etc. ?