THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY, EDITED BY THE
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE. D.D., DEAN OP GLOUCESTER;
AND BY THE
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
WITH
INTRODUCTIONS BY THE
VERY REV. F. W. FARR.AR, D.D., F.R.S., DE.AN OF CANTERBURY, RIGHT REV. H. COTTERILL, D.D., F.R.S.E. VERY REV. PRINCIPAL J. TULLOCH, D.D. REV. CANON G. RAWLINSON, M.A. REV. A. PLUMMER, M.A., D.D.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND NEW YORK 1910 !'lmn'ED BI' WU.LU.II< CLOWBS AND SONS, LIMIT&D, LONIX»I AND B8';CLES.
(T,v, ,,t-.u ef tra,ulati~H ado/ 1·ej,rodU(;/ioH an r11,rr11tl,) TIIE
PULPIT COMMENTARY, IDITED B1' Tllll
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., I>I!lAB 01' GLOUOEll'l'BBi
AND BY Tlll!I
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
ST. LUKE. Sxposftfon BY VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., DEAN 01' GLOUOESTEB.
~omflttfcs BY REV. J. MARSHALL t__LANG, D.D., THIii BABOHY PABISB, GLASGOW,
~t:1mflfts b!] lTatfous ~utfJors. 11EV. W CLARK80N, B.A. BEV. B. M. EDGAR, M.A.
VOL. I.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND NEW YORK l!Jlll THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE.
INTRODUCTION,
I. ST. Lum:'s GosPEL RECEIVED AS AN AUTHORITATIVE WRITING IN THE FIRST AGE OF CHRISTIANITY.
IN the last quarter of the second century-that is to say, in less than a hundred years after the death of St. John-the canon of the New Testa- ment, as we have it now, was generally 1 accepted in all the Churches of the East and West. How widespread was the religion of Jesus Christ before the close of the second century we have abundant testimony. Justin Martyr,2 for instance, before the middle of the century, wrote how "there existed not a people, whether Greek or barbarian, whether they dwelt in tents or wandered about in covered waggons, among whom prayers were not offered up in the name of a. crucified Jesus, to the Father and Creator of all things." Tertullian, a few years later, living in quite another part of the Roman world, told the heathens that his brethren were to be found filling the camp, the assemblies, the palace, the senate." 1 Before the year 200 the well-known and voluminous writings of Irenreus in Gaul, Clement in Alexandria, and Tertullian in Carthage, the capital of wealthy Proconsular Africa., testify to the wide and general acceptance of the books composing the New Testament canon. These writings clearly tell us what was the judgment of the Catholic Church at that early period 1 The booke which at thl\t early date hRd only received a partial aceeptance were the
Epistle to the Hebrews, the two shorter Epistles of St. John, the Second Epi.i!Ue of St. Poter, the Epietlos of St. J11mee and St. Jude, 11ud the A11ooalyp1e. • Justin Martyr,• Dil\l. oum Trypho,' 117. • Torlu!li11u, 'Al,lol.,' S7. b INTil0DUCTTON TO
in the matter of the sacred Christi1tn books. They were the holy treasnre- houlle whither men resorted for authoritative statement on doctrine and on practioe. Here men sought for and found their Master's words, and the tf'&ching of his chosen followers. In the weekly services of the Church, &ll early ae the middle of the oentury, we learn from Justin Martyr, the memoirs of the apostles (by which term he designated the Gospels) were read on the same footing as the writings of the prophets of the Old Tm,tament. Among these books, which in the last years of the second century were Among Christians so universally received as authoritative and honoured as Holy Scripture, was the Gospel a,ccording to St. Luke. We will now see how far it is possible to traoe the ea:isteflCB of the Third Gospel from the close of the second century upwards towards the source. There is no question that it was generally known and received in the last quarter of the second oentury : tDaa it referred to aa a sacred tDriting before this date 1 From A..D. 120 to 17 5. Iren&JtUJ, Bishop of Lyons, in Gaul, succeeded Pothinus in the episcopate about A.D. 177. He tells us how, in his youth, he had been acquainted with Polycarp in Smyrna, who had known St. John. The da.te of his birth was about A..D. 130. In the writings we possess of Irenreus we find no reference by name to any book of the New Testament; but we meet with such striking coincidences of language and thought with many of those books, that it is perfectly oortain he was intimately acquainted with them. St. Lnke's Gospel was one of these. - The Canon of Mu.raton was discovered in the Ambrosian Library at Milan in a manuscript of great antiquity, containing some of the works of Chrysostom. It is but a fragment, yet it gives us, with fair completeness, the judgment of the Western Church on the canon of the New Testament about the year of our Lord 170. The date is clearly ascertained by internal evidence. Among the other sacred books i'.'4 writes thus of the Third Gospel : " The Gospel of St. Luke stands third in order, having been written by St. Luke the physician, the companion of St. Paul, who, not being himself &n eye-witness, based his narrative on such information as he could obtain, beginning from the birth of John." Justin Martyr, of whose writings we possess several important pieces, 1 was born at the close of the first century, and died about A.D. 165. Hie works that are preserved may be dated roughly A..D. 130 to 150-160. They contain a mass of references to the Gospel narratives, embracing the chief facts of our Lord's life, and many details of his teaohing-never, save in one or two very unimportant details, travelling out of the track of the stary of the four evangelists, his many references being free from legendary e.dmi.x:ture. Theae circumstances connected with our Lord's life were 1 Of the writir.ge whioh bee.r now the name of Justin Martyr, two •Apologies• and the
• Dialogue with 'l rypl,o' are genuine beyond a doubt (cf Weatcott 011 the Canon,' 'fhc Age of tile Greek AJ.lulugi,te,' eh. ii.). 'l'IIE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. iii