The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 64

the horn it ie ,, daleth, d; without the horn , attempt to round o:fl:' the condensed, and a.t ,, resh, r. '.!.'ho heresiorch Morcion (second first sight apparently disconnected, utter- oentury) here, in his recension of St. Luke, changes the text thue: "It ie easier for ances. So here, directly after the frag- heaven and earth to pose, than for one tittle mentary report of certain sayings of Jesus, of my sayings to fail." Marcion, who refused the great parable of Lazarus and Dives is to allow the Divine origin of any part of the introduced with somewhat startling abrupt- Old Testament, wae afraid of the testimony ness; nothing of St. Luke's is added-simply which thie BBeertion of our Lord would give the original report as Luke or Paul received to the Divine authority of the Pentateuch. In illustration of his saying that the moral it is reproduced. Law given to the Jewe was changeless, and 'fhe following ia probably the connection while earth endured would never fail, the in which the famous parable was spoken. Master instances one grave chapter of the When the Lord spoke the parable-story of Law with which there had been much tam- the unjust steward, he pressed home to the pering-that of divorce. "See," he said, "the new state of things which I am now listeners, as ita great lesson, the necessity of teaching, instead of loosening the cords with providing against the day of death, and he which the old Law regulated human society, showed how, by the practice oi kindness here will rather tighten them. Instead of a towards the poor, the weak, and the suffer- laxer code being substituted, l am preaching ing, they would make to themselves friends a yet severer one. My law of divorce is a severer one than that written down by who would in their tum be of use to them Moses." -who would, in their hour of sore need, Ver. 18.-Whosoever putteth away his when death swept them out of this life, wife, and marrieth another, committeth receive them into ewerlasting habitationL adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that We believe that the Master, as he spoke is put a.way from her husband, oommitteth these thing!!, purposed-either on that very adultery. The teaching of the rabbis in the time of our Lord on the question of the occasion, or very shortly after, when bis me.rriage tie was exceedingly Jax, and listeners were again gathered together-sup~ tended to grave immorality in the family plementing this important teaching by an- life. In the late unlawful marriage of other parable, in which the good of having Herod Antipas with Herodias, in which so friends in the world to come should b~ many sacred and family ties were rudely torn asunder, no rabbi or doctor in Israel clee.rly shown. The parable of Lazarus and but one bad raised his voice in indignant Dives, then, may be rege.rded e.s a piece of protest, and that one was the friend and con- teaching following on to e.nd closely con- nection of Jesus of Nazareth, the prophet nected with the pe.re.ble of the unjnsi John the Baptist. Divorce for the most stewe.rd. trivial oe.uses was sanctioned by the rabbis, and even such men as Hillel, the grandfather Nine verses, however, as we have seen of that Gamaliel whom tradition speaks of a.re inserted between the two parables. Of as the rabbi whose lectures were listened to these, vers. 10-13 a.re simply some reflec- by the Boy Jesus, taught that a man might tions of the Master on the parable of the divorce his wife if in the cooking she burnt steward just spoken. Then comes ver. H- his dinner or even over-salted bis soup (see Talmud, treatise • Gittin,' ix. 10). a. scornful interruption on the po.rt of the Pharisee listeners. Our Lord replies to this SS. Luke and Paul, different to the great (vers. 15--18), and then goes on, either then masters of profane history, like Thucydides, or very soon after, to the same auditory, with or Livy, or Xenophon, were evidently at no the parable of Lazarus e.nd Dives, which is, pains to round off their narratives. They in fact, a direct sequel to the parable of the give us the account of the Lord's words and unjust steward, e.nd which St. Luke pro- works very much as they had them from coeds to relate without any_further preamble. the first listeners and eye-witnesses. When the notes o.nd memories were very scant and Ver. 19.-There was a oerte.in rich me.n. fre.gmento.ry, as appeo.r to ho.ve been the He is thus introduced by the Lord without any details respecting his age or place of case in the Lord's discourse which St. Luke residence-nameless, too I Seems he not to interposes between the parable of the steward have been reading from that book where be. and that of Dives and Lazarus, the frag- found the name of the poor man written, but mentary notes cue reproduced without any found not the no.me of the rich ; for tho.t book LUKE.-JI1 F  66 Tirn GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [cu. xvi. 1-31.