188
29. ἢ πῶς δύναταί τις εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν οἴκίαν τοῦ ἰσχυροῦ καὶ τὰ
σκεύη αὐτοῦ διαρπάσαι,}
1 BCXE have the simple αρπασαι. Mk. or to the next clause.
3 ~
ἐὰν μὴ πρῶτον δήση τὸν ἰσχυρόν; καὶ ” ‘ a ae 2 τότε τὴν οἰκίαν αὐτοῦ διαρπάσει.
30. 6 μὴ Gv per ἐμοῦ, κατ ἐμοῦ
διαρπασαι (ΝΓΙ.Δ al.) conforms either te
2 SD (Tisch.) have διαρπαση. BCL al. p/. have διαρπασει, as in Τ.Ε. (W.H.).
Conception of Christianity, chap. xiii.). A trace of the new Pauline view may be found in Mt. x. 20: ‘It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking in you’. The influence is within, and the product is not unintelli- gible utterance, like that of the speaker with tongues (1 Cor. xii., xiv.), but wise, sincere apology for the faith. But why then did Luke not adopt this Pauline phrase? Because one of his main aims was to bring out the miraculousness of Christ’s healing works; that they were done by the very finger of God (Exod. viii. το).---ἔφθασεν. Fritzsche takes this word strictly as signifying not merely: the kingdom of God has come nigh you (ἤγγικεν, Lk. x. ο), but: has come nigh sooner than you expected. The more general sense, however, seems most suitable, as it is the usual sense in the N. T. The point at issue was: do the events in question mean Satan’s kingdom come or God’s kingdom come ? It must be one or other; make up your minds which.—Ver. 29. To help them to decide Jesus throws out yet another parabolic line of thought.—%!if all that I have said does not convince you con- sider this. The parable seems based on Is. xlix. 24, 25, and like all Christ’s parabolic utterances appeals to common sense. The theme is, spoiling the
spoiler, and the argument that the enter--
prise implies hostile purpose and success in it superior power. The application is: the demoniac is a captive of Satan; in seeking to cure him I show myself Satan’s enemy ; in actually curing him I show myself Satan’s master.—rov ἰσχυροῦ: the article is either generic, or individualising after the manner of parabolic speech. Proverbs and parables assume acquaintance with their charac- ters.—oxevn, household furniture (Gen. xxxi. 37); ἁρπάσαι, seize (Judges xxi. 21).--διαρπάσει, make a clean sweep of all that is in the house, the owner, bound hand and foot, being utterly help- less. The use of this compound verb points to the thoroughness of the cures wrought on demoniacs, as in the case of the demoniac of Gadara: quiet, clothed,
sane (Mk, v. 15).—Ver. 30. One begins at this point to have the feeling that here, as elsewhere, our evangelist groups sayings of kindred character instead of exactly reproducing Christ’s words as spoken to the Pharisees. The connec- tion is obscure, and the interpretations therefore conflicting. On first view one would say that the adage seems more appropriate in reference to luke- warm disciples or undecided hearers than to the Pharisees, who made no pretence of being on Christ’s side. Some accord- ingly (¢.g., Bleek, after Elwert and Ullmann) have so understood it. Others, including Grotius, Wetstein, De Wette, take the ἐγώ of the adage to be Satan, and render ; he who, like myself, is not with Satan is against him, Kypke, Ob- serv. Sac., says: ‘‘ Prima persona posita est a servatore pro quacunque alia, pro- verbialiter, hoc sensu: qui socius cujus- dam bella cum alio gerentis non est, is pro adversario censeri solet. Cum igitur ego me re ipsa adversarium Satanae esse ostenderim, nulla specie socius ejus potero vocari.”” This certainly brings the say- ing into line with the previous train of thought, but if Jesus had meant to say. that He surely would have expressed Himself differently. The Fathers (Hilary, Jerome, Chrys.) took the ἐγώ to be Jesus and the 6 μὴ ὢν to be Satan. So under- stood,the adage contains a fourth con- cluding argument against the notion of a league between Jesus and Satan. Most modern interpreters refer the 6 µ. w. to the Pharisees. Schanz, however, under- stands the saying as referring to the undecided among the people. The only serious objection to this view is that it makes the saying irrelevant to the situa- tion.—oKoptife.: late for the earlier σκεδάννυµι, vide Lob., Phryn., p. 218. As to the metaphor of gathering and scattering, its matural basis is not apparent. But in all cases, when one man scatters what another gathers their aims and interests are utterly diverse. Satan is the arch-waster, Christ the collector, Saviour.