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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Luke 6:17 - 6:17
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He came down with them (katabas met' autōn). Second aorist active participle of katabainō, common verb. This was the night of prayer up in the mountain (Mar 3:13; Luk 6:12) and the choice of the Twelve next morning. The going up into the mountain of Mat 5:1 may simply be a summary statement with no mention of what Luke has explained or may be a reference to the elevation, where he “sat down” (Mat 5:1), above the plain or “level place” (epi topou pedinou) on the mountain side where Jesus “stood” or “stopped” (estē). It may be a level place towards the foot of the mountain. He stopped his descent at this level place and then found a slight elevation on the mountain side and began to speak. There is not the slightest reason for making Matthew locate this sermon on the mountain and Luke in the valley as if the places, audiences, and topics were different. For the unity of the sermon see notes on Mat 5:1. The reports in Matthew and Luke begin alike, cover the same general ground and end alike. The report in Matthew is longer chiefly because in Chapter 5, he gives the argument showing the contrast between Christ’s conception of righteousness and that of the Jewish rabbis. Undoubtedly, Jesus repeated many of the crisp sayings here at other times as in Luke 12, but it is quite gratuitous to argue that Matthew and Luke have made up this sermon out of isolated sayings of Christ at various times. Both Matthew and Luke give too much that is local of place and audience for that idea. Mat 5:1 speaks of “the multitudes” and “his disciples.” Luk 6:17 notes “a great multitude of his disciples, and a great number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon.” They agree in the presence of disciples and crowds besides the disciples from whom the twelve apostles were chosen. It is important to note how already people were coming from “the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon” “to hear him and to be healed (iathēnai, first aorist passive of iaomai) of their diseases.”