Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Luke 18:8 - 18:8
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Luk 18:8. Ἐν τάχει) He will both “effect the avenging of His elect,” and effect it speedily.-πλὴν ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐλθὼν ἆρα εὑρήσει τὴν πίστιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς; nevertheless when the Son of man shall come, whether shall He find faith on the earth?) πλὴν, nevertheless, it is not so much the prayers of the pious (inasmuch as their faith, which evinces itself in their ‘crying,’ shall be reduced to a marvellous paucity and smallness) as the goodness and justice of God, which will accelerate the consummation. The πλὴν nevertheless, and the ἆρα, num [an interrogative which expects an answer in the negative], have great ἦθος (characteristic feeling and graphic power); the negative assertion being modified and tempered by the interrogative form of the sentence. For He shall come, before that the faith of the godly utterly fails. He does not declare that faith shall be universal; nor does He say that faith shall have been utterly at an end on the earth, replete as it shall be with iniquities and calamities, inasmuch as faith had not utterly ceased upon it even at the time of the flood, Heb 11:7. It was deemed [by God] right that there should be persons who should receive the Messiah, at His first coming, with faith: Luk 1:17 [It was John the Baptist’s office accordingly “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord”]; much more therefore will it be deemed right that there should be believers, to whom He is hereafter to come, having been long expected by them [Psa 72:5-7; Psa 72:17]; Mat 24:31; Mat 23:39; Mat 25:1, et seqq. [“Five wise” were found when He came]; 2Th 1:10; 1Th 4:17; 1Co 15:51; Heb 9:28; Rev 22:20.-ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, the Son of man) to Whom the judgment has been assigned, Joh 5:22; Joh 5:27.-ἐλθὼν, when the Son of man shall come) from heaven. For the antithesis, on the earth, follows. From the verb εὑρήσει, shall He find, the participle ἐλθὼν has the force of a future: and He is speaking of His coming to avenge His saints: 2Th 1:8 : that is to say, He is speaking of His coming visibly for the last judgment; as the appellation, “Son of man,” leads us to infer. Comp. ch. Luk 17:24; Luk 17:20.-εὑρήσει, shall He find) Comp. ch. Luk 7:9 [Jesus as to the centurion, “I have not found so great faith,” viz. though looking for it].-τὴν πίστιν) the faith, whereby the godly trust in the Lord, and cry to Him. The hope of better times is neither confirmed nor discouraged (weakened) by this declaration. The worst of all times, and that most full of careless security, shall succeed to the better times,-a time most widely removed from (most alien to) faith, a time running on to the very coming of the Son of man.