The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 244

2. (1) Wl,y iF !hie period, compl\rativcly their Master's immedinto neighbourhood, speaking, so little dwelt on by lho other two These apostles would nl\tumlly choose, as eynoptists SS. MRtthew and Mark? (2) the special subjects of their own tcnohing \\"here did St. Luke probably derive hie and preaching, those events at which they in formation here ? personally had been present. l\Iuch of who.t 1. C,ommcntatore frequently, nnd with was done and said by the Master daring snme 11.<'curacy, speak of this great section of these last six months was dooe during the St. Luke's work as "the journeyings to- temporary absence, on spcoiol mission duty, wards Jerusalem." Three times does thie of these two evangelists. writer especil\lly tell us that thie was the (2) When we consider the probo.ble 1ouroea object and end of the journeys he w:i.e de- whence St. Luko derived his deto.iled infor- sorihing; in oh. ix. 51, " He steadfastly set mation concerning this period, we are, of his faoo ro go to Jero.sal.em;" in eh. xiii. 22, course, landed in conjeotilre. We know, " Be went through the cities and villages however, that the whole of his narrative was , . . journeying iO'IDard JeNLSakm;" in composed o.fter careful research into well• oh. xvii. ll, "And it came to pass, as he sifted evidence, supplied generally by eye- u,ent to JeNLSa1em." witnesses, of the events described. These journeyinga to Jerusalem were Thus, in the earlier chapters, we have evidently just before the end, They were already discussed the high probability of the the close of the public life. They imme- Virgin-mother herself having furnished the diately preceded the lest Passover Feast, information; so here there is little doubt which all the four evangelists tell us the that SS. Paul and Luke, in their researches Lord kept at Jerusalem, and in the course during the composition of the Third Gospel, ef which he was crucified. They fill up, met with men and women who had formed then, the last six or seven months of his part of tho.t larger company which had earth-life-that period, roughly speaking, been with Jesus, we know, during those last from the Feast of Taberne.cles (alluded to in months of his ministry among us. Nor is John vii.), which falls in October, until the it, surely, an unreasonable thought for us Passover Feast in the following spring. to see, in connection with this important These last months were oocupied by the portion of our Gospel, the hand of the Holy Master in a slow progress from Capernaum, Spirit, who, unseen, guided the pen of the through those pa.rte of Giililee hitherto gene- four evangelists, especially throwing Luke rally unvisited by him, gradually making and his master, Paul, into the society of men his way toward the capit.a.I. which we know who had watched the great Teacher closely he reached in time for the Passover Feast, during that period of his work, when the during which he was crucified. other two synoptists, SS. Matthew and Peter In the course of this period it seems, how- (Mark), were frequently absent, ever, likely that, in St. Luke's e.ccount of From the language employed in this por• Mary and Marthe. (eh. L 38-42), we have tion of the Gospel, there seems a high proba- an allusion to a short visit to Jerusalem of bility that many of the notes or documents the Lord, undertaken in the course of these supplied to SS. Luke and Paul were written journeyings, at the Dedication Feast (John or dictated in Aramaic (Hebrew), z_ 22). 2. (1) In these last journeyings it appears Vere. 51-56.-The Sama.,iron ln,uU to the I,ord. The Master's reception of it. that the Lord was in the habit of constantly Ver. 51.-And it 1J&me to pass, when the eending out by themselves small companies time was come that he should be received of his disciples as missiooaries in the neigh- up, he steadfastly set Ilia face to go to J'ern- bouring districts, thus accustoming his fol- salem. 'fhis is e. very solemn introduotion lowers, in view of his own approaching death, to this greo.t eeetion of St. Luke's writing. It at once marks off all tho.t now follows as to ect alone and to think alone. H is, a winding-up of the earthly ministry, The therefore, extremely probable that SS. expression, "that he should be received up," Matthew and Peter (the real author of St. is simply the rendering of one Greek word, Mark's Gospel) were, during this period of which signifies "ucension." The Passion, our Lord'■ work, conste.ntlJ absent from the cross, and the grave are passed ovw ou. u. 1~62.J THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 245