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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Luke 9:51 - 9:51
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
When the days were well-nigh come (en tōi sumplērousthai tas hēmeras). Luke’s common idiom en with the articular infinitive, “in the being fulfilled as to the days.” This common compound occurs in the N.T. only here and Luk 8:23; Act 2:1. The language here makes it plain that Jesus was fully conscious of the time of his death as near as already stated (Luk 9:22, Luk 9:27, Luk 9:31).
That he should be received up (tēs analēmpseōs autou). Literally, “of his taking up.” It is an old word (from Hippocrates on), but here alone in the N.T. It is derived from analambanō (the verb used of the Ascension, Act 1:2, Act 1:11, Act 1:22; 1Ti 3:16) and refers here to the Ascension of Jesus after His Resurrection. Not only in John’s Gospel (Joh 17:5) does Jesus reveal a yearning for a return to the Father, but it is in the mind of Christ here as evidently at the Transfiguration (Luk 9:31) and later in Luk 12:49.
He steadfastly set his face (autos to prosōpon estērisen). Note emphatic autos, he himself, with fixedness of purpose in the face of difficulty and danger. This look on Christ’s face as he went to his doom is noted later in Mar 10:32. It is a Hebraistic idiom (nine times in Ezekiel), this use of face here, but the verb (effective aorist active) is an old one from stērizō (from stērigx, a support), to set fast, to fix.
To go to Jerusalem (tou poreuesthai eis Ierousalēm). Genitive infinitive of purpose. Luke three times mentions Christ making his way to Jerusalem (Luk 9:51; Luk 13:22; Luk 17:11) and John mentions three journeys to Jerusalem during the later ministry (Joh 7:10; Joh 11:17; Joh 12:1). It is natural to take these journeys to be the same in each of these Gospels. Luke does not make definite location of each incident and John merely supplements here and there. But in a broad general way they seem to correspond.