Bible Commentaries

B. The Seventy Disciples. Luke 10:1-24

(Partial parallel to Matthew 11:20-30.)

1After these things the Lord appointed other seventy [seventy others¹] also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would [was about to] come 2 Therefore said he [And said, V. O.²] unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest 3 Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves 4 Carry neither purse, nor scrip [wallet], nor shoes; and salute no man by the way 5 And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house 6 And if the [a] son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn [return] to you again 7 And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house 8 And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: 9And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you 10 But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, 11Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth [from your city, transferred from last clause] on us [to us upon our feet³], we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding, be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you [om, unto you, V. O.⁴].12But [om, But, V. O.⁵] I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city 13 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works [αί δυνάμεις, Kräfte, V. O.] had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had [would have] a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes 14 But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you 15 And thou, Capernaum, which art [who hast been ⁶] exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell 16 He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth [despiseth—in all four places—ἀθετῶν, lit, sets at nought] him that sent me 17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils [demons] are subject [subjected] unto usthrough [lit, in] thy name 18 And he said unto them, I beheld⁷ Satan as lightning fall19[fallen, πεσόντα] from heaven. Behold, I give [I have given, δέδωκα⁸] unto you power [ἐξουσίαν] to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power [δύναμιν] of the 20 enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject [subjected] unto you; but rather [om, rather⁹] rejoice, because your names are written in heaven [the heavens]. 21In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even Song of Solomon, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. [And turning himself to his disciples, he said, V. O.¹⁰] 22All things are delivered to me of [by] my Father: and no man [one] knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Song of Solomon, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. 23And he turned him unto his disciples, and said [turning himself…, he said] privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: 24For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

General Remarks.—From different quarters the credibility of the account of Luke respecting the Seventy has been disputed (Strauss, De Wette, Theile, Weisse, Von Ammon, Baur, Köstlin, Schwegler, a. o.). Inner improbability appeared to cast doubt on this account, while the silence of the other Synoptics was also suspicious. Commonly, however, the attacks have been directed against a manner of viewing the fact, which is demanded neither by the letter nor the spirit of the evangelical narrative. The Seventy, namely, have been too much regarded as a fixed number, as a continually active circle of the Saviour’s servants besides the Twelve, and exclusive of them, and were supposed to have preached the kingdom of God afterwards also. In this case, it certainly would have been extremely surprising that there is no other trace to be found of this circle of disciples, nay, that even Eusebius was no longer able (H. E. i12) to give the catalogue of the names of these disciples. But on attentive consideration it soon appears that the Seventy received no other commission than at this particular time to prepare for the coming of the Saviour in some towns and villages, and that they, after the accomplishment of their charge, were absorbed in the wider circle of His followers. Thus are they a remarkable luminary in the public life of the Saviour, whose brilliancy, however, endured only a brief time, and Luke therefore cannot be justly charged with having here, for the first time, not “precisely investigated” everything. That Jesus, besides the Twelve, had yet a wider circle of disciples, appears also from John 6:66; Acts 1:15-26; 1 Corinthians 15:6. But if we had here to understand an intentional invention, then, without doubt, many more particulars respecting the great deeds of these men would have appeared both here and in the Acts. The number Seventy also occasions not the least actual difficulty. Perhaps it is an indefinite round number (comp. Matthew 18:22), or the Saviour may have had His reasons for sending out neither more nor less than thirty-five pairs of such ambassadors in different directions. But even if we assume that we have here a symbolical number before us, which referred to the elders of Israel ( Exodus 24:9), or to the members of the Sanhedrim with the exclusion of their president, or finally to the seventy heathen nations, according to the ancient Israelitish reckoning, the symbolism is not, therefore, by any means unhistoric (Schwegler). The number of the apostles also was a symbolical one, and if we assume that this number Seventy is to indicate the universal direction of the gospel, it then becomes doubly intelligible that Luke, the Paulinist, brings forward this circumstance so distinctly. Matthew and Mark might the more readily pass over these, as they had already communicated more in detail the discourse of the Saviour in the sending out of the Twelve, which in many points coincided with this one.

Luke 10:1. Seventy others.—If this circle existed only a few days or weeks, it is the less surprising that it soon became uncertain who had belonged to it. Fancy had then free play, and very soon men used this company as a charitable foundation in order to provide for men who did not belong to the Twelve, but who were of some account [in the church], such as Mark, Luke, Matthias. (Strauss). A peculiar list of candidates is found in Sepp, iii26, who here, at the same time, finds prefigured the number of the cardinals of the papal see.

And sent them.—The chief purpose of this sending was not to fashion and train these messengers for a later independent activity (Hase, and after him Krabbe, who appeals, N. B., for proof of it to Luke 10:20), but it was a new attempt, in order to influence to decision at least a part of the people, and by word and deed to prepare the coming of the kingdom of God in the midst of them. “This whole journey of Jesus was intended, before the departure of the Lord from His previous theatre of activity, to present to the people the last decision, to be everywhere the Messianic entrance, which, in connection with the final entry into Jerusalem, was to culminate in the latter.” Meyer.

Into every city and place whither He Himself was about to come.—According to Lange, Leben Jesu, ii. p1057, we are to understand exclusively towns in Samaria, and to consider this whole mission as a noble vengeance for His rejection, Luke 9:51-56. It is, however, a question whether the Saviour really had the intention of visiting so many as thirty-five towns and villages of the Samaritans. If we keep in mind the direction of His own journey, we should undoubtedly rather have to assume that the Seventy preceded Him to Judæa. In this whole investigation, however, we must not overlook the fact that it is as yet very much in question whether Luke communicates this whole sending forth of the Seventy in its exact historical connection. The expression μετά ταῦτα, Luke 10:1, is at least very indefinite, and since he in Luke 10:17 relates also the return of these messengers immediately after their departure, it brings us almost to the conjecture that he here as frequently follows rather the order of subject than that of time. If we are obliged to assume that our Saviour afterwards actually visited all the places whither these messengers had gone before Him, this probably would have happened shortly after the feast of Tabernacles, John 7 But in no case are we obliged to conceive the matter as Von Ammon, ad loc., does, who, from very peculiar sources, seems to know that the Saviour on this journey sent forth a great number of His disciples, and selected them to give special probationary instructions in the nearest synagogues!! Better Riggenbach: “The seventy disciples are to be regarded as a net of love which the Lord threw out in Israel.”

Luke 10:2. And said.—As the Seventy are distinct from the Twelve, so is the instruction which is communicated to both distinct. The difference between the two inauguration addresses is great enough to refute the conjecture that transferences and transpositions of single expressions have taken place from one discourse into the other. It is noticeable how these admonitions of the Saviour to the Seventy agree with the precepts which Hebrews, according to Luke, Luke 9:1-6, gave to the Twelve in sending them forth. If the Evangelist is not to be charged with very great inconsistency, we shall be forced to assume that the words of Jesus on the second occasion were at least partially the same. But the distinction comes much more strongly into view in comparing this with Matthew 10. The gift bestowed on the Twelve of working miracles is far more extended than that which is here bestowed in Luke 10:9 on the Seventy. Of the persecutions which He foretells the Twelve, and of the extraordinary help of the Holy Spirit which He promises them, Matthew 10:17-24, and of which there was to be further speech only after the day of Pentecost, the Seventy in entering upon their only momentary and soon accomplished work, have communicated to them not a word. The earlier command not to go into a town of the Samaritans is this time omitted, as the journey perhaps went through a part of Samaria. On the other hand, the remarkable injunction given to the Seventy alone, to salute no man on the way, appears doubly congruous, as the Saviour sees His public life hurrying to an end. Such differences are as far from being unimportant as accidental, but have sprung rather from the different nature of the persons and facts. The Twelve had to return upon the traces of Jesus, in order to gather in the harvest of that which He had sown. The Seventy must go before His face, in order to prepare a way for Him.

The harvest truly is great.—According to Matthew 9:37-38, the Saviour uttered this word before the sending of the Twelve, and it is very possible that He now repeated it. But if we assume that it was only spoken once, then undoubtedly its position in Matthew is the most exact.

Luke 10:3. As Lambs.—According to Matthew 10:16, the Twelve are sent out ὡς πρόβατα. It is undoubtedly possible that this distinction is to be explained merely from a different form of the tradition (Meyer); on the other hand, however, it is quite as conceivable that the Saviour, for this case, intentionally modified the figurative language. But if He did, it was certainly not to attribute to the Seventy a lower place than to the Twelve (Euth. and Zigab.), but “in order this time to lay emphasis on simplicity together with defencelessness (Matthew has ‘doves’).” Stier.

Luke 10:4. Salute no man.—It is well known that salutations in the Orient were much more essential than with us, and that, e.g., inferiors remained standing until their superiors had passed by. Comp. 2 Kings 4:29. Respecting the different formulas of salutation among the Jews, see Lightfoot, ad loc.

Luke 10:5. And into whatsoever house.—The preliminary investigation enjoined in Matthew, Luke 10:11, is here omitted. From everything it appears that the Saviour’s affairs demanded haste. His whole instruction may be comprehended in the saying, John 13:27 b.

Luke 10:6. A son of peace.—Not pace dignus (Bengel), but one for whom peace is prepared, because the needful receptivity for the word of peace is found in his heart. Upon this one is the salutation of peace to rest, for peace shall fill his heart, Philippians 4:7. In the opposite case it was only an empty sound in his ear, and returned without delay to him from whom it had proceeded.

Luke 10:7. And in the same house.—In the one, that is, where they are received by children of peace. They must thus avoid even the appearance of seeking from the inhabitants theirs instead of them, and are not permitted, therefore, even in a meagre entertainment to find any cause of speedy departure. Comp. Matthew 10:11; Luke 9:4.

Luke 10:9. Heal the sick.—The brevity of this commission in comparison with the detailed instruction to the Twelve ( Matthew 10:8) is not to be overlooked. It is remarkable, however, that the Seventy, on their return, speak of no other healing of the sick than the casting out of the demons. The connection of healing and preaching here gives the former a symbolical character.

Luke 10:11. Even the very dust.—See the remarks on Luke 9:5, and Lange on Matthew 10:14. “What there was not yet enjoined on the Twelve is here prescribed to the Seventy: to follow even this last act of displeasure with the repetition of the word of love, that the kingdom of God was come near. But now no longer: “To you” (spurious), but quite generally. “It is and remains true that it is come near, even though you contemn it.”

Luke 10:12. I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom.—According to the common conception, the judgment of retribution has already smitten Sodom and Gomorrah. According to the steady teaching of the New Testament, on the other hand, this judgment, terrific though it was, is only a foretaste of that which is to be expected at the end of days. Comp, for instance, Jude Luke 10:7. The terrible judgment, moreover, with which the Lord here threatens those who reject His servants, is an unequivocal proof of the high rank which He ascribes to them, compared with the most eminent men of God, and indirectly, at the same time, a striking revelation of His own entirely unique self-consciousness.

Luke 10:13. Woe unto thee, Chorazin!—Comp. Matthew 11:20-24. Here again it is as before; whoever assumes that the Saviour uttered this Woe only once, will, at the same time, have to concede that it is communicated by Matthew in the most natural connection. Luke then introduces this saying on this occasion apparently because he had just given the exclamation over Sodom, and also communicates it with less fulness and particularity. On the other hand, no one can dispute our right to assume here too that the judgment of these Galilean towns lay so heavily on the heart of Jesus that He more than once uttered forth, the exclamation of woe (Meyer). Something subjectivistic in remarks of this kind is indeed hardly to be wholly avoided. Respecting the locality of the here-mentioned places, see Lange on Matthew 11:20-24. It is noticeable, and at the same time wise, that the Saviour, among the towns whose judgment He denounces, does not speak expressly of Nazareth. This might have had the appearance of a personal revenge.

They would have … repented.—“These words are remarkable inasmuch as the Saviour, even as respects the past, speaks of nothing as absolutely necessary. He here plainly recognizes the freedom of self-determination and possibility of the contrary event.” Olshausen.—Undoubtedly, there must have been so many miracles performed as well at Chorazin as at Bethsaida, that this judgment was fully deserved. And yet the Evangelists relate nothing whatever of them. A proof certainly that they have been rather frugal than lavish in the writing of their accounts of miracles. Comp. John 21:24-25.

Luke 10:16. He that heareth you.—As the Seventy, although they were not invested with the apostolic office, nevertheless saw themselves called for a time to an apostolic activity so weighty, we cannot be surprised that the Saviour gives also to them an assurance similar to that with which He had formerly sent forth the Twelve, Matthew 10:40.

Luke 10:17. Returned again with joy.—Although it is of course evident that the return of the different messengers could not have taken place at the same time, Luke, however, so represents the matter as if they had simultaneously rendered account to the Lord of the result of their journey, and had received His approbation and indeed His eulogy. Not a solitary trace of the permanent gain which they brought to the kingdom of God has been preserved to us; yet a single hint is given of the momentary impression which they elicited.—“Even the demons.”—To their eye every other fruit of their labors recedes before this recollection. If we consider that a command to cast out demons had not been expressly given them, and that this attempt a little before had failed even when made by nine apostles, Luke 9:37 seq., we can still better understand this joy of the Seventy, and must at the same time entertain the most favorable ideas of their courage and of their strength of faith. Their righteous joy is in the answer of the Saviour confirmed, augmented, and sanctified.

Luke 10:18. I beheld Satan.—That in this figurative speech the whole fall of the kingdom of darkness in and with its personal head is portrayed, can as little be contested as that here it is a beholding with the eye of the spirit that is spoken of. The answer to the question, when or how long previously the Saviour had seen this spectacle, is determined entirely by the connection of the discourse. If this saying stood entirely alone there would not be the least difficulty in understanding an earlier period in the public life of our Lord (Lange), or even in going back before His Incarnation (Hofman). In a very sound sense of the word we may call the whole inner life of Jesus a continuous spiritual beholding of the discomfiture of the kingdom of darkness; one which is to be restricted to no particular time. But when the Saviour utters this word in answer to the Seventy, He can scarcely mean to say anything else to them than that they have by no means deceived themselves, since Hebrews, accompanying them in spirit, had seen the sudden downfall of Satan, whose servants the demons were. It is not an isolated vision which is here spoken of, but a spiritual intuition of the God- man, before whom even the secrets of the world of spirits are discovered and lie open.

Luke 10:19. I have given unto you power.—Thus does the Saviour, by a new assurance, augment the joy which He had just confirmed. Δέδωκα, according to the corrected reading of Tischendorf. The Preterite is not merely a reminiscence of the previously given plenitude of power, but also a confirmation and renewal of the same.—“To tread on serpents and scorpions.”—Undoubtedly here also similar miracles are indicated to those related in Mark 16:17-18; Acts 28:5; Psalm 91:13, yet only so far as they were revelations of the higher spiritual ability which Christ had bestowed upon them. Not only to shake off poisonous serpents and adders, which, comparable to intertwining lightning-streams, are types of the fallen Evil One, but to cast down all might in the spiritual world which exalted itself in hatred against Christ—this was their holy function. Through the Spirit of truth they had to make subject to themselves the spirits of lies; but in this noble task there lurks also a dark danger. The Lord knows how the nets of temptation are first stretched for the favored among His own, and therefore does He sanctify their righteous and augmented joy by a word of most earnest warning.

Luke 10:20. Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not … are written in heaven.—The word μᾶλλον appears here added to the text only to bring more clearly into view that the Saviour disapproves their joy at the subjection of the spirits not unconditionally, but only relatively. This, however, even without such an addition, is sufficiently obvious from the whole spirit and connection of this admonition. The Saviour wishes them not to rejoice too much over anything which they may accomplish for the kingdom of God. For this joy might easily and unconsciously be joined with self-seeking and pride, and besides, would not always dwell in their hearts, and might perhaps be followed by conflict and disappointment; and it must moreover at last lead them to keep their eye directed more without than within and above. Besides, what any one does is a very deceiving standard for the judgment of his inner worth. One may cast out devils and yet himself be still a child of darkness ( Matthew 7:22); therefore our Lord gives to their joy a better direction. Even the greatest talents and gifts cannot be compared with the prerogative of him who obtains in heaven a place of honor.—“That your names.”—The Seventy knew undoubtedly, as we also do, the beautiful figure of the Old Testament which depicts to us the Eternal One with a book before His face, wherein He notes down the names and deeds of His faithful servants. Exodus 32:32-33; Malachi 3:16. Comp. Revelation 3:5. Our Lord now rejoices them with the transporting assurance that their names also shone there, and directs their attention in this way to the truth that their own deliverance from the power of the devil ought to dispose them far more to thankful joy than their most glorious triumph over his disarmed servants. This prerogative should remain to them even though Satan should again exalt himself, even though their name should not be renowned upon earth, even though it should be there forgotten. “Contrarium de prœvaricatoribus, in terra scribentur, Jeremiah 17:13.” Bengel. Comp. also Psalm 69:28; Philippians 4:3.

Luke 10:21. In that hour.—Comp. Matthew 11:25-26. That the here-following words of the Saviour are given by Matthew in a far more significant connection is admirably proved by Lange, ad loc. That, however, Luke states correctly the definite occasion on which the Saviour gave utterance to this God-glorifying declaration, appears not only from the ἐν αὐτῇ τῇὥρᾳ, but also from the whole connection, unless one should also wish to reckon this saying among the bis repetita, which undoubtedly has its difficulties if too often resorted to.

Jesus rejoiced.—If from the preceding words, Luke 10:20, it might appear as though the Saviour did not wholly share the transport of His disciples, and regarded the joy which they reaped in their work with less satisfaction than they themselves, we see here the contrary, and by the one word ἠγαλλιάσατο, Luke offers to our heart and our imagination the most delightful conception: the hour of joy in the life of Jesus.

That Thou hast hid.—That by the wise and prudent here only fancied wise men, and by the νήπιοι not ignorant persons in themselves, but simply childlike souls, are understood, is evident. It is also evident that as well in the time of the Saviour as in the following ages, it has been commonly rejected by the former and received by the latter. But what are we to understand by this, that God has hidden these things from the wise and prudent? To say that God has permitted it, but in no wise ordained it, is a confession that testifies of perplexity; was it then only permission that God revealed it to the simple? To maintain that God has arbitrarily so ordained it, would sound like a blasphemy of God; can God Himself blind me, and at the same time make my blindness the ground of my condemnation? Without doubt we have here to understand a direct, yet at the same time a holy, wise, and loving disposition of things by the Father, one which is thoroughly grounded in the nature of things. To the haughty man it is morally impossible to bow before Christ, and the connection between his inner corruption and his great destitution is effected by God Himself. God has connected the participation in His kingdom with a condition which lay within the reach even of the most simple: namely, lowliness and humility of heart; wise and prudent men wantonly made themselves unreceptive of this blessing, and became in consequence of this obnoxious to this judgment, that God hid these things from them. And if our Lord gives thanks therefor, it is not for this hiding in and of itself, however deserved it may be, but for this, that even if these things were hidden to the wise, they at least did not remain concealed for all. An example of similar construction we find, among others, Romans 6:17. This Divine ordinance, by which so many stood outside of His kingdom, was at the same time the source of manifold conflict in His life, and yet the Saviour is not only perfectly at one with the will of the Father, but rejoices thereat, and declares: ναί, ὁ πατήρ, κ.τ.λ.—In the idea of a εὐδοκία of course everything arbitrary must be avoided, which really indeed appears also from what follows, ἔμπροσθέν σου. The counsel of the Father may be sovereign, but never tyrannical.

Luke 10:22. All things are delivered to Me by My Father.—Again, one of those passages where the Christology of the Synoptics and that of John surprisingly concur. Comp. John 17:2. By the limitation of the πάντα to the teaching of Jesus, Grotius has prepared the way for the rationalistic interpretation of this saying, an interpretation which may be named arbitrariness and superficialness itself. It appears, moreover, that the most original form of this saying is found in Matt. Luke 11:27. Comp. Lange ad loc. and that the form in Luke: οὐδείς γινώσκεί, τίς ἐστιν ὁ υἱός must be considered as an (undoubtedly correct) interpretamentum. The peculiar phenomenon that this saying of the Lord is, in the writings of Justin Martyr, even three times, as also in the Clementines, and in Marcion and Tertullian, read in exactly the reverse order: “No one knows the Father but the Song of Solomon,” is sufficiently explained by that with which Irenæus, adv. Hœr. iv14, prefaces the mention of this deviation: “Hi autem, qui peritiores Apostolis esse volunt, sic scribunt,” &c. See Olshausen, “Genuineness of the Four Gospels,” p295.—“No one knoweth.”—The Saviour declares therefore that a man can be guided only by the knowledge of the Son to that of the Father, but also conversely that a man can be guided only by the Father to the knowledge of the Son. And that the complete form of the expression would also require the addition, “No one knoweth the Son but the Father and he to whom the Father will reveal Him,” appears evident from Luke 10:21 b, and from Matthew 16:17. Respecting the conception of Revelation here presented, Dr. Von Bell, Diss. Theol. de vocibus φανεροῦν et ἀποκαλύπτειν, L. B1849, p51, deserves to be compared. Of the Seventy and of all who had believed through their word, it could without doubt be said that the Father had revealed Himself through the Son in their souls. This whole expression of the most exalted self-consciousness might at the same time serve to counteract the scandal which one or another might take at the rejection of the Gospel by the wise and prudent.

[The exact correspondence, in substance, spirit, and form, of this passage, Luke 10:21-22, and the parallel passage, Matthew 11:25-27, with the Gospel of John, has always attracted attention. Yet its isolated character in the two Synoptical Gospels is equally apparent. It is not in the least discordant with their contents, and in Luke especially is seen to be in thorough harmony with the context. Nevertheless, it is in an essentially different vein from the general tone of our Lord’s discourses as given by the Synoptics. Yet that our Lord only once in His public life broke forth into a distinct declaration of His inner relation to the Father, to which, nevertheless, in the Synoptics, He so frequently alludes, is hard to believe. This passage lies embedded in the Synoptical discourses as a vein of rich ore, which by a sudden “fault” breaks off, showing us that a continuous mass of it exists somewhere, and at the same time that it is at a considerable remove from this isolated fragment. This original matrix we find in the Gospel of John.—C. C. S.]

Luke 10:23. Unto His disciples … privately.—Already here and there one (see Luke 10:25) presses more closely to the circle of the Seventy who gather around Jesus and receive His exalted eulogy. The Saviour unites the highest wisdom with the holiest transport of soul, and therefore addresses the words now following to them apart. In Matthew 13:16-17 also this saying is found: yet surely it appears on this occasion doubly congruous. Whether the Saviour originally named kings or righteous men along with the prophets, is on internal grounds exceedingly difficult, and on external grounds not at all, to be determined.

Luke 10:24. Many prophets and kings.—One of the sublimest utterances of our Lord which appear in the Synoptical Gospels. He proclaims Himself as Him in whom alone not only the expectation of the earlier time is fulfilled, but in whom also the Ornament and Crown of mankind has appeared. The image of a David and Hezekiah, of an Isaiah and Micah, rises clearly before His soul, and their inner life stands before His spirit as a life of expectation, as whose centre and fulfilment He recognized Himself. Over against all these He looks upon the scanty circle of His disciples, who are infinitely higher privileged, and as if He feared even the appearance of self-exaltation when He testifies of Himself, He says unto them in the ear what soon is to be proclaimed upon the housetops: “More than Song of Solomon, more than Jonah is here.” At the same time this felicitation for the Seventy is an indirect admonition not only to look with continual faith upon Him, but also moreover to listen to Him with all the devotion of which kings and prophets would certainly have counted Him worthy. Doubly fitting is this intimation, since the messengers now receded again into the circle of His ordinary hearers, and the placing of such a saying at the conclusion of the interview with the Seventy appears therefore on internal grounds exact.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. See Exegetical and Critical remarks.

2. The sending forth of the Seventy is a new revelation of the glory of the King of the kingdom of Heaven. It is a repetition of that which had already begun in smaller measure in the journeyings of the Twelve through Galilean towns and villages; an evangelization in a field that is yet strange or hostile, a Home Mission upon a continually enlarging scale. Here also do the messengers of Christ go two and two, as it were in remembrance of the word of the Preacher, Ecclesiastes 4:9-10. According to the Lord’s own word, Luke 10:18, their journey at the same time bears the character of a vigorous assault upon the powers of darkness; there is something moreover indescribably naïve and touching in the manner in which they reveal their joy over the success of their momentous undertaking. But especially is this new preaching a powerful voice of awakening for the lost sheep of the house of Israel to come to the Good Shepherd, and the Woe over towns in which such works were done was certainly doubly deserved.

3. The image of the genuine minister of the Gospel is, in the address of the Saviour to the Seventy, placed vividly before our eyes. The substance of His preaching is a message of peace, comp. Isaiah 52:7, which finds echo in the heart of the son of peace, and in his heart alone. The demeanor which becomes him is meekness, contentment, self-denial, on the one hand—see as an example of the manner in which the precepts here given were applied by Paul, 1 Corinthians 9:5; 2 Corinthians 10:16; Romans 15:20—on the other hand a demeanor of dignity when despised and opposed. The authority which is bestowed upon him is, since he stands in the service of the truth, in a certain sense like that of the apostles, nay, like that of the Lord Himself, notwithstanding all other differences in office and sphere of activity. And his honor, which is continually unacknowledged by the world, will be brilliantly established by Him that hath sent him, when once the judgment upon the rejector of the Gospel shall be revealed.

4. The enduring might which the Saviour has bestowed on His witnesses in the spiritual sphere is at the same time an indirect argument against the correctness of the limited view of those who would restrict the gift of miracles almost exclusively to the circle and the age of the Apostles, instead of believingly receiving the Saviour’s word, John 14:12. Comp. the weighty dissertation of Tholuck upon the miracles of the Catholic Church, in the first part of his miscellaneous writings.

5. In the well-known letter of Publius Lentulus to the Roman Senate, which is alleged to contain a description of the person of the Saviour, there is contained among other things the testimony: qui nunquam visus est ridere, flere autem sœpius. To this rigoristic and ascetic view, what Luke here relates of the Saviour’s joy of soul is strikingly opposed. Here at least His countenance is refulgent with inmost joy, His head He raises triumphantly towards Heaven, and from His whole being shines forth a glow of blessedness. The sublimity of this joy we feel the more, when we compare with it that of the Seventy. They rejoice in the great things, He in the good brought to pass; they have their joy directed to the outer, Jesus His to the moral, world; they rejoice alone in the present, Jesus also in the past and the future; they are disposed to self-praise, Jesus to thankful adoration. Only once besides do we hear Him with such complete publicity glorify the name of the Father. It is just before the raising of Lazarus ( John 11:42), both times, therefore, when spiritually dead awake to higher life. The subject and the character of His joy is, therefore, a proof of the saying, John 14:9.

6. The utterance, “No one knows the Son save the Father,” is one of the most convincing testimonies for the true Godhead of Christ. One who was only a created spirit or an immaculate man could not possibly without blasphemy against God testify this of Himself. If only the Father knows perfectly who the Son is, we must then give up all hope of searching out, on this side of the grave, so much of this depth that the object of faith shall have become wholly the object of the Christian Gnosis. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find Him out, Job 37:23. On the other hand, we must be careful to make a distinction between cognitio vera et adœquata, and doubt only of the latter and not of the former. It is therefore as over-precipitate as superficial when this saying of the Saviour has not seldom been used as a catchword in order to repress as impossible or unprofitable a more than superficial investigation of the person and work of the Saviour. The saying, “No one knows the Son but the Father,” can at most be a result but never a hindrance of a renewed Christological investigation, and least of all a cloak for indifferentism or ignorantism. The remark of Otto Von Gerlach on Matthew 11:27 is well worthy of being compared here.

7. The Gospel stands not below but above the understanding of the wise and prudent in their own eyes. One misuses the word of the Lord concerning babes and the simple if he reads therein an authorization of stupidity and narrowness, and a sentence of condemnation against science and a true Christian depth of apprehension. True Wisdom of Solomon, however, can only be that which is joined with child-like simplicity, and as true knowledge leads to faith, so can faith alone bring us to true science. It is, however, no shame but an honor to the Gospel that it can be nothing for those who will not learn but Judges, will not humble themselves but bear rule, comp 1 Corinthians1, 2.

8. “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven,” a dictum probans for the doctrine of the Evangelical Church that a believer even in this life may be assured of his eternal salvation. When Möhler [the eminent Roman Catholic Symbolist] asserts that he “in the neighborhood of a man who without any restriction declared himself sure of his salvation should be in a high degree uneasy,” nay, “that he could not repel the thought that there was something diabolical beneath this,” he thereby affords us a deep glance into the comfortlessness of a heart which seeks the ultimate ground of its hope in self-righteousness [as many Protestants do, who agree with the Roman Catholic church in making their own assurance of salvation depend upon their attainments in holiness, instead of resting in simple faith in the consciousness that they have committed themselves to Christ.—C. C. S.], but he shows at the same time that he has not comprehended the word of the Lord to the Seventy in its whole depth. It is well known that this, “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven,” was the worthy answer of the dying Haller to the friends who congratulated him on the honor of a visit in his last hours from the Emperor Joseph II.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The Saviour’s work of love an unwearied and continual work of love.—The preaching of the word of the kingdom of Heaven must be continued in ever-increasing measure.—Even yet the Lord often sends forth His servants two and two.—Value and difficulty of collegial relations among the ministers of the Gospel.—The husbandry of God: 1. Great is the harvest; 2. few are the laborers; 3. God alone can restore the just relation between harvest and laborers.—God the Lord of the harvest, who1. Determines the time of the harvest; 2. appoints the laborers for the harvest; 3. guards the success of the harvest; 4. deserves the thank-offering of the harvest.—Prayer to the Lord of the harvest: 1. Its contents; 2. its ground; 3. its blessing.—The vocation of the messengers of the Gospel on its bright and dark side; 1. Christ Himself sends them out, but, 2. as lambs in the midst of wolves.—The Christian freedom from care of those who serve the kingdom of Heaven.—The preaching of the Gospel at the same time a salutation of peace and a declaration of war.—Only the son of peace can receive and appropriate the salutation of peace.—The coming of the Gospel into the circle of domestic life.—“We seek not yours but you.”—The fundamental features of a future Halieutics and Poimenics [or, in other words, of a theory of the two branches of the minister’s work, the conversion of men as a fisher of souls, and the training of converts as a shepherd of souls.—C. C. S.] comprised in the instructions given to the Seventy.—The laborer is worthy of his hire: 1. However imperfect he be he certainly deserves it; 2. however late it may come he always receives it.—Ἰατρὸς γὰρ ἀνὴρ πολλῶν ἀντάξιος ἅλλων.—Even the severest utterance of the rejected witnesses of Christ may never bear the character of a personal vengeance.—Holy wrath and inexhaustible love united in the ambassadors of Christ.—The greater the privileges the greater the responsibility.—The wrath of the Lamb, Revelation 6:16.—What the desolated cities of antiquity testify to unbelieving posterity.—A future judgment awaits even sinners already condemned.—Capernaum the image of unbelieving Christendom: 1. The darkness resting upon Capernaum; 2. the light rising upon Capernaum; 3. the enmity reigning in Capernaum; 4. the judgment passed upon Capernaum.—The Saviour regards the cause of His ambassadors as His own.—Whoever rejects the Gospel rejects not man but God.—Whoever as the servant of Christ seeks not his own honor, him, sooner or later, shall his Master bring to honor.

Whoever has gone forth into the service of the Lord owes Him first of all an account thereof.—Before the name of Jesus all the powers of darkness must bow.—Satan’s fall: 1.Perceived by Jesus; 2. effected by Jesus; 3. celebrated by Jesus.—The falling of Satan and the falling of lightning: 1. The height of both; 2. the quickness of both; 3. the depth of both.—The greatest triumphs over the might of darkness are known to the King alone, not to the servants.—Jesus, treading on serpents, gives the same power also to His church, Romans 16:20.—Naught can harm him who harms not himself.—Dominion over the world of spirits, however desirable it may be, is yet not the deepest ground for the joy of the disciples of Jesus.—The highest eulogy: “Your names are written in Heaven:” 1. How it is to be understood; 2. how desirable it Isaiah 3. how alone it is to be obtained.—The certainty of salvation: 1. Its only ground; 2. its all-surpassing worth.—Can even a name written in the book of life be blotted out of it again? Revelation 3:5.

“In the same hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit:” 1. An example of the joy which the Lord sometimes experiences upon earth; 2. an image of the joy which He now experiences in Heaven; 3. a presage of the blessedness which He shall hereafter taste when the kingdom of God shall be fully perfected.—The joy of the Saviour and the joy of His people.—How true Christian joy elevates itself to praise and thanks.—The sovereignty of the Father of light: 1. The Father in Heaven at the same time Lord of Heaven and earth; 2. the Lord of Heaven and earth at the same time a heavenly Father.—The kingdom of God, now as ever, hidden from the wise and prudent, and revealed unto babes: 1. This is not different, a. in the days of the Saviour, b. in later ages, c. in our time; 2. this cannot be different, a. objective cause in the nature of the Gospel, b. subjective in the human heart, c. supernatural in the counsel of God; 3. this may not be different, for even in this way, a. the divinity of the Gospel is confirmed, b. the requirements of the Gospel are satisfied c. the trial of the Gospel is assured.—God’s good pleasure in concealing and revealing the truth of salvation: 1. An uncensurable, 2. an unalterable, 3. an adorable good pleasure.—Even though it appear enigmatical, yet must faith approve the good pleasure of the Father.—It is possible to be wise and prudent and at the same time to be a child and simple, 1 Corinthians 14:2.—Not the developed understanding but the soul longing for salvation is the first point of attachment for the things of the kingdom of God.—The power bestowed on the Lord Christ by the Father: 1. An unlimited; 2. a legitimate; 3. a beneficent; 4. an ever-enduring power.—The whole unique relation between the Son and the Father: 1. How far it is the object of our faith: 2. how far it can be the object of our knowledge.—How: 1. The Son reveals to us the Father, but also, 2. the Father reveals to us the Son.—The relation between the Father and the Son: 1. The highest mystery; 2. a revealed mystery; 3. even after the revelation yet continually a partially concealed mystery.—The blessed lot of the sincere disciples of the Lord.—In Christ: 1. The highest expectation of antiquity fulfilled; 2. the highest ideal of mankind realized; 3. the highest revelation of the Godhead bestowed.—No prophet or king of the Ancient Covenant so blessed as the heir of the new.—In order to see that which is highest on earth, there is no need to be prophet or king, but only a disciple of Jesus.

Starke:—Hedinger:—For faithful teachers God must be entreated.—Faithful laborers in church and school grow not of themselves, nor are they taken from the trees; God gives and sends them.—Those who are sent of God must possess the qualities of sheep and lambs, 1 Timothy 3:3.—Osiander:—Preachers should be content with little, and remain mindful of this, that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, Romans 14:17.—When the common usages of the country have nothing sinful in them, they are undoubtedly by all means to be observed.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Happy are they who are sons of peace, on whom rests the peace of the children of God, Galatians 6:16.—Woe to the houses where the blessing brought turns back again.—“If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great matter if we shall reap your carnal things?” 1 Corinthians 9:11.—Cramer:—In hell there will doubtless be grades of damnation, Luke 12:47-48.—Quesnel:—This is a holy abyss of the judgment of God, that the Gospel is preached even to those who reject it, and that it has not been preached for those who would have repented, Romans 11:33.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—By repentance one can avert from himself temporal and eternal destruction, 1 Kings 21:29; Jeremiah 26:3; Jonah 3:10.—The condition of very great exaltation is dangerous, for it is exposed to very heavy falls, Obadiah 1:4.—Brentius:—Joy from divine blessings bestowed must keep within bounds, and lead to the watchword, Psalm 115:1.¹¹—Majus:—The holy ministry has the destruction of the kingdom of Satan as its design.—Canstein:—That God’s children often rejoice more over lesser than greater heavenly benefits is a sign of their imperfection.—Hedinger:—Not gifts but faith saves.—In the kingdom of God one has not only occasion to weep, but also heartily to rejoice over the goodness of God and the marvellous things which He does for the children of men.—Osiander:—Not all the wise are rejected, and not all the simple enlightened; they who lay off their wisdom and go to Christ to school shall be instructed unto the kingdom of Heaven.—Canstein:—The natural knowledge of God is not enough to salvation, else had we needed no special revelation.—Zeisius:—Oh, what an admirable preëminence of the New Testament above the Old, but also much heavier condemnation of unthankful Christians than of the Jews, Hebrews 2:2.—Brentius:—The fathers of the Old Testament were saved as much by the cross of Jesus Christ as we, only that for us the light shines clearer than for them, Acts 15:11.

Heubner:—With Christ man can do more than he believes; our faintheartedness is often put to shame. How many simple missionaries accomplish by faith what the profoundest theologians without faith would not lay hand to.—Christ plainly took the kingdom of evil spirits for something real.—If we are purely bound to Christ no enemy is dangerous to us.—How different worldly and heavenly praise.—Bengel:—How can one know whether his name is written in the book of Life? With this point one must not make the beginning of the salutary doctrine, which first brings forward repentance and faith, but make a conclusion thereunto, as the epistle of Paul to the Romans in particular exhibits. Only look to it that thou ever hold faithful to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the rest let Him take care. If thy name appears with renown in human registers, that helps thee nothing, but hurts thee rather.—Schleiermacher:—Rejoice not over what you accomplish (Sermon3, page24), for the reason: 1. That it cannot be the standard of our own value; 2. that it conflicts with love to judge any one according to this; 3. that we cannot always hold fast this joy.

Von Gerlach:—There comes the hour of fulfilment of all longings and hopes, as it has come for the world in Jesus Christ. What the prophets had portrayed in individual, ever-clearer traits of His image in their prophecies, this appeared in Him Himself in full glory. Thus could no prophet have conceived Him, and still less have portrayed Him. Although there is no doctrine of the New Testament, of which the beginnings were not already to be found in the Old, although everything concerning Christ has been said, scattered here and there; yet who, before His appearance, could have had even a presentiment of this union of the highest, holiest, Divine majesty and the deepest lowliness of humility, of the most powerful might and the fieriest zeal with the stillest meekness and patience. Of the inestimable privileges of the true Christian, the word of Saint Bernard holds good:

Quocumque loco fuero,

Jesum meum desidero,

Quam lætus, quum invenero!

Quam felix, quum tenuero!

Footnotes