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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Luke 14:18 - 14:18
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Luk 14:18. Ἤρξαντο, they began) Previously they had professed for their part to be in a state of expectation [waiting for the call to be given].-ἀπὸ μιᾶς) ‘Elliptical,’ says Camerarius, who adds, “ἀπὸ μιᾶς, viz. γνώμης, with one consent or mind (with unanimity); or ἀπὸ μιᾶς παραιτήσεως (with one declining), i.e. they all alike began to decline the invitation. So almost similarly in Iliad βʼ, εἴγε ποτʼ ἔσγε μιάν βουλεύσομεν, namely, supplying βουλὴν, if ever we shall deliberate with unity of counsel among us: and so elsewhere, οὐχ ὁσιή, κταμένοισιν ἐτʼ ἀνδράσιν εὐχετάασθαι, namely, εὐχή, the vaunting is not pious wherewith one vaunts over the dead. And in Psalms 26, μιὰν ᾐτησάμην παρὰ τοῦ Κυρίου, namely, αἴτησιν; and in Psalms 57, εὐθείας κρίνετε υἱοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, namely, κρίσεις.” [-παραιτεῖσθαι, to make excuse) “To buy a piece of ground,” etc., are things not bad in themselves; but it is bad to be entangled and encumbered by such things, and to make as our pretext necessity in the case of earthly things combined with (alleged) impossibility (Luk 14:26, οὐ δύναμαι ἐλθεῖν, I cannot come) in the case of spiritual things.-V. g.-αὐτῷ, to Him) who had prepared the banquet.-V. g.]-ἄγρον, a field [piece of ground]) In this verse there is implied a farm, in the following verse, trafficking, merchandise. Comp. Mat 22:5 [They went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise]. The verb, ἠγόρασα, I have bought, repeated in both cases, Luk 14:18-19, implies eagerness to make gain, as is the usual feeling whilst the transaction is still recent. To a worldly man when he is made sensible of the Divine call, all vain things are new and sweet.-[ἠγόρασα, I have bought) It is profitable to allege on the opposite side as a ground for denying the world, another and very different purchase of a field (the Gospel-field containing the pearl of great price), Mat 13:44, another kind of plowing (the Gospel-plow), Luk 9:62, in fine, another espousal (viz. to Christ), 2Co 11:2.-V. g.]-ἔχω ἀνάγκην, I must needs, I feel it necessary) Often there meet together the most acceptable seasons of grace, and the most urgent calls of worldly business. This man makes as his pretext a feigned necessity: The second, a mere inclination after other things, Luk 14:19, πορευόμαι, I go; The third, Luk 14:20, a perverse allegation of impossibility, I cannot come. This last one declares expressly that he cannot; the two former declare that they will not, but use a courteous formula of apology. The holy hatred (μισεῖ τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ) spoken of in Luk 14:26 [if they had felt it] could have healed them all of their excuses. However the variety in their modes of rejecting the invitation lay not so much in their state of mind [which was the same in all three] as in the objects on which their rejection of it rested, “the piece of land,” “the oxen,” “the wife.” Comp. Matt. l. c.-ἐρωτῶ, I beg, I pray, thee) A most unworthy and wretched prayer (request) whereby the kingdom of God is refused.