169
ΧΙ. 1. Καὶ ἐγένετο ὅτε ἐτέλεσεν 6 ᾿Ιησοῦς διατάσσων τοῖς δώδεκα μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ, " μετέβη ἐκεῖθεν τοῦ διδάσκειν καὶ κηρύσσειν ἐν α Ch. κ. ο;
a LA 7. A Tals πόλεσιν αὐτῶν.
xv. 29 (with ἐκείθεν).
2. “O ΔΕ Ἰωάννης ἀκούσας ἐν τῷ ὃ δεσµωτηρίῳ τὰ ἔργα τοῦ b Acts v.21,
Χριστοῦ, πέµψας δύο] τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ, 3. εἶπεν αὐτῷ, “Σὺ
1 ΑΦΒΟΡΔΣ have δια.
though not in himself, shall, in the moral order of the world, be counted as a good man.—Ver. 42. The last word, and the most beautiful; spoken with deep pathos as an aside; about the disciples rather than to them, though heard by them. ‘‘ Whosoever shall do the smallest service, were it but to give a drink to one of these little ones (ἕνα τῶν μικρῶν τούτων, cf. Matt. xxv. 49) in the name of a disciple, I declare solemnly even he shall without fail have his appropriate reward.”— Wpuypov: ex- pressive word for water, indicating the quality valued by the thirsty ; literally a cup of the cool, suggesting by contrast the heat of the sun and the fierce thirst of the weary traveller. No small boon that cup in Palestine! ‘In this hot and dry land, where one can wander for hours without coming on a brook or an accessible cistern, you say ‘thank you’ for a drink of fresh water with very different feelings than we do at home”? (Furrer, Wanderungen durch das Heilige Land, p. 118).— Fritzsche remarks on the paucity of particles in vv. 34-42 as indi- cating the emotional condition of the speaker.
CuHaPTER ΧΙ. JESUS JUDGED BY AND Jupcinc His CoNTEMPORARIES. We are not to suppose any close connection in time between the events related in this chapter and the Galilean mission. The reverse is implied in the vague introduc- tory statement, that when Jesus had completed His instructions to the Twelve He went away on a teaching and preach- ing tour among the towns. The impor- tant thing is to realise that all that is re- lated here must have taken place after there had been time for the methods, aims, spirit, and way of life of Jesus to manitest themselves, and so to become the subject of general remark. It wasa matter of course that a man of such depth, originality, unconventionality, energy and fearless independence would sooner or latter provoke criticism of all shades; from mild, honest doubt, to de- cided reprobation. However popular at first, He must become at last compara-
23; Xvi. 26.
δυο is a harmonistic assimilation to Lk.
tively isolated. By the time the events here related occurred, the reaction had fully set in, and the narrative shows how extensive it was, embracing within its sphere of influence the best in the land represented by the Baptist; the com- mercial class represented by three cities named ; the professional class—the “ wise and understanding ”’; and the zealots in religion.
Ver. I. ὅτε ἐτέλεσεν διατάσσων. The participle here with a verb signifying to cease as often with verbs signifying to begin, continue, persevere, etc., vide Goodwin, § 879. ἐκεῖθεν, from that place, the place where the mission was given to the Twelve. Where that was we do not know; probably in some place of retire- ment (dans la retraite, Lutteroth).—7wé- λεσιν αὐτῶν: the pronoun does not refer to the disciples (μαθηταῖς) as Fritzsche thinks, but to the people of Galilee. While He sent out the Twelve to preach, He continued preaching Himself, only avoiding the places they visited, “' giving room to them and time to do their work, for, with Him present and healing, no one would have cared to go near them,”’ Chrysos., Hom. 36.
Vv. 2-6. Message from the Baptist (Lk. vii. 18-23). Ver. 2. Seopwrnpio (from δεσµόω, δεσµός, a bond), in prison in the fortress of Machzrus by the Dead Sea (Joseph., Antiq.,18, 5, 2),a factalready alluded to in iv. 12. By this time he has been a prisoner a good while, long enough to develop a prison mood.—éxov- σας: not so close a prisoner but that friends and followers can get access to him (cf. Matt. xxv. 36, 43).---τὰ ἔργα τοῦ χριστοῦ: this the subject in which the Baptist is chiefly interested. What is Jesus doing? But the evangelist does not say the works of ¥esus, but of the Christ, i.e., of the man who was believed to be the Christ, the works which were sup- posed to point Him out as the Christ. In what spirit reported, whether simply as news, with sympathy, or with jealousy, not indicated.—wéepias: the news set John on musing, and led to a message of inquiry—81a τ. μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ, by his