Lange Commentary - Luke 11:29 - 11:36

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Lange Commentary - Luke 11:29 - 11:36


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2. A Sign for the Eye and an Eye for the Sign (Luk_11:29-36)

(Comp. Mat_12:38-42; Mat_6:22-23.)

29And when the people were gathered [gathering] thick together, he began to say, This [generation] is an evil generation: they seek [it seeks] a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas [Jonah] the prophet [om., the prophet]. 30For as Jonas [Jonah] was [became] a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. 31The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater [ ðëåῖïí , neuter; lit., something more] than Solomon is here. 32The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas 33[Jonah]; and, behold, a greater than Jonas [ ðëåῖïí ’ Éùíᾶ ] is here. [And] No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a [the] bushel,but on a [the] candlestick, that they which come in may see the light. 34The light of the body is the [thine] eye: therefore when thine eye is single [sound], thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil [diseased], thy body also is full of darkness. 35Take heed therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness 36If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a [the] candle [with its brilliancy, ôῇ ἀóôñáðῇ ; om., the bright-shining] doth give thee light.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk_11:29. He began to say.—The occasion for this discourse of rebuke on the part of the Saviour Luke has already, Luk_11:16, communicated at the same time with the judgment of the Pharisees. Matthew keeps the two elements, Luk_12:24; Luk_12:38, more exactly apart, arranging them chronologically. According to his account it is principally Pharisees and Scribes who desire to see the sign from heaven, in whom, however, the Saviour, with the most perfect right, views the legitimate representatives of the whole evil and adulterous generation of His contemporaries. According to Luke they are indeed ἄëëïé than those who had before spoken, yet by no means animated with a better spirit. They will tempt Jesus ( ðåéñÜæïíôåò ) in that they laid for Him a snare, indirectly support their humiliated and castigated friends, and desire something of Him which He could not refuse them without exciting much remark. If we are not disposed by the sign from heaven to understand an actual revelation of the Shekinah, they have at all events some kind of cosmic phenomenon in mind, either an eclipse of the sun or moon, or a meteor, or something of the sort, which, however, must be so far different from the other miracles of our Lord as this, that it was to be performed, not on men who surrounded Him, but on objects which were apparently elevated above Him, and was therefore to strike the eye so much the more strongly. Perhaps they find occasion for this inquiry in the definite assurance of the Saviour that He cast out demons ἐí äáêôῦëù ̣ Èåïῦ , at which they in a hypocritical tone declared themselves ready to acknowledge Him as soon as He should have given them an incontestable proof of His heavenly mission. It is in this case much easier to understand that the Saviour, agreeably to His principle, performed no sign before them, since He found in them not the slightest receptivity for the moral impression of His miracles: comp. Mat_13:58.

There shall no sign be given it.—This whole answer of the Saviour breathes, besides righteous displeasure, a heavenly composure and wisdom: for it gave all to whom the truth was dear, plainly to understand that His refusal to give a sign was perfectly just, and besides that only conditional, and finally, that it was only temporary.

The sign of Jonah.—The briefer expression of Luke must be explained by the more developed statement of the language of our Lord in Matt. Luk_12:40, of whose genuineness and exactness there is no occasion whatever to doubt. “The reference of the sign of Jonah merely to the preaching and manifestation of the Saviour in Paulus, Schleiermacher, Neander, a. o., needs no refutation.” Lange. Had the Saviour wished to refer to that alone, He would then have had to express Himself more exactly, and to say: As Jonas was a sign to the Ninevites, so is also the Son of man for this generation. The ἔóôáé itself points to the future. As Jonah from the belly of the fish had come forth, to appear to the Ninevites, so should the risen Jesus be for His contemporaries a sign, but not from heaven; from the depth of the earth shall this sign be given, but yet it should serve for their condemnation. The parallel consists in this, that Jonah goes down into the fish’s belly, and after three days’ abode therein, comes again out of the same, while Christ descends into the heart of the earth, Sheol (Meyer), and also after the same time again gloriously appears. And if we must also, according to Jonah 2, conceive the prophet as living in the belly of the fish, this takes nothing from the general correctness of the comparison. As respects, however, the difficulty as to the designation of time, a íõ÷èÞìåñïí does not need always to endure just twenty-four full hours. See 1Sa_30:12-13, and in the Talmud Hieros. it is expressly stated: “Day and night make together a period ( òåֹðָç ), and the part of such an one is as the whole.” Comp. Stier, R. J. II., p. 53.

Luk_11:31. The Queen of the South.—Comp. Lange on Mat_12:42. Less precisely has Luke placed the comparison with Solomon before that with Jonah and the Ninevites, because then the beautiful climax of the discourse is lost. The Queen of Sheba had given yet greater proofs of faith and exhibited yet more interest than the Ninevites, who believed on the word spoken in their immediate vicinity; for out of distant lands had she come to hear the wisdom of Solomon, while the Jews contemned what they could find in their immediate neighborhood, and yet there was more here than Solomon!

More than Solomon.—In order to feel the power of this comparison, in which the wisdom of Solomon is to be kept carefully in mind as the tertium comparationis, we must not only realize to ourselves what is written in the Old Testament regarding Solomon, but also especially what tradition had added to this, in reference to his magic words, his ring, his knowledge of the secrets of the spiritual world, &c, in consequence of which Solomon stood in almost unearthly glory before the eyes of the contemporaries of Jesus. [The simple reference to the scriptural account of Solomon appears quite sufficient, without supposing our Saviour to have taken any account of the superstitious fables respecting Him.—C. C. S.]

Luk_11:32. The men of Nineveh.—It cannot be stated with certainty whether Jonah made to the Ninevites any intimation of the miracle that had happened to him or not. But even supposing he did not, the contrast is then so much the stronger. The Ninevites believed Jonah upon his word, without knowing anything of the miracle. The Jews, on the other hand, had not only heard the preaching of Jesus, but also afterwards an account of His resurrection, and yet they believed not. In no case, therefore, is the judgment here uttered by Jesus too hard.

Luk_11:33. And no man.—Course of thought: I am more than Jonah (Luk_11:32); but in order to know this one does not (as you do) put the light under a bushel. Unquestionably Jesus, according to Luke, appears to wish to denounce the insincerity of His adversaries (De Wette). Comp. Mat_5:15; Luk_8:16.— åἰò êñõðôÞí , that is, in a vault, a cellar, the familiar crypta of ancient buildings and churches. See Meyer, ad loc.

Luk_11:34. When thine eye is sound.—Comp. Mat_6:22-23. If the light is to be permitted to shine brightly before the eyes of others upon the candlestick, then it is above all things necessary to preserve to one’s self the light of his own power of perception undarkened and bright. Respecting the inner eye, see Lange on the parallel passage in Matthew. There appears to be indicated by this an immediate original consciousness of God, to which also Paul, Act_17:27, alludes. It appears, therefore, that according to the doctrine of the Saviour, the organ exists even in fallen man by which revealed truth can be viewed, and it may be said that here, as also in Mat_13:12, the general law is stated according to which an increase of the inner light and of the spiritual life takes place in man. If we assume that Luke communicates this saying of the Saviour in its exact historical connection, then especially must we not leave out of view that Jesus here speaks of the people (Luk_11:29), but not exclusively of His disciples, so that by the eye and the light of which here He speaks, we must understand, not anything specifically Christian, but something generically human.

Luk_11:35. Take heed, therefore.—Only in Luke does the admonition appear in this definite form. The same thought is uttered in the ôὸ óêüôïò ðüóïí in Matthew. The Saviour fears that the here-indicated darkening is already found in part in His hearers, and warns them therefore to look to it that it do not become a total darkening.

Luk_11:36. If thy whole body therefore. This saying also only Luke has preserved. The appearance of a weak tautology, of which expositors complain, is best avoided if in the protasis we let the emphasis fall upon ὅëïí , in the apodosis upon öùôåéíὀí , ὡò ὅôáí , ê . ô . ë . The sense is then this: Only when thy body is wholly illumined, without having even an obscure corner left therein, will it become so bright and clear as if the full brilliancy of a bright lamp illumined thee; in other words, thou wilt be placed in a normal condition of light.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. It is from a Christologico-psychological point of view noticeable how it is the repelling of the charge of diabolical agency, which disposes and occasions the Lord to give forth one of the most elevated expressions of His self-consciousness, in that He places Himself far above Jonah and Solomon. As this comparison gives proof of His true humanity, it at the same time places the superhuman in His activity in the brightest light.

2. The sign of the prophet Jonah is essentially the great sign which the Saviour, even in the beginning of His ministry, had intimated to the hostile ’ Éïõäáßïéò , Joh_2:19-21. Thus, therefore, does the Saviour in Jerusalem and Galilee, over against similar opposers, and now, after the lapse of a year, remain fully consistent with Himself.

3. The craving for wonders is a diseased condition of soul, which can never be satisfied, and which, therefore, is combated by the Saviour with all His might. Comp. Joh_4:48. And so much the stronger opposition did He present to this temptation since it was in its deepest ground a Satanic one, and really a repetition of the request that He should perform a miracle of display. Comp. Luk_4:9-10. The Saviour could so much the less satisfy the demand of His contemporaries, as these were wholly wanting in the holy sense of light [Lichtsinn] which had animated the Ninevites in reference to Jonah and the Queen of the South in reference to Solomon.

4. It is manifestly here expressed that the truth revealed to man in the Gospel stands, not as something entirely foreign, over against and outside of him, but as related to the inmost constitution and the highest receptivity of his nature, as the eye and the light are, as it were, made for one another. Here holds good the beautiful expression of Goethe: Wär nicht das Auge sonnenhaft, wie könnten wir das Licht erblicken, &c. [Were not the eye akin to the sun, how could we behold the light?] And the Christian hymn, Heil’ge Einfalt, Gnadenwunder. [Holy simplicity, miracle of grace.]

5. “So can and should the receptivity of light in the spiritual sense (reason, feeling, and conscience) be cherished and kindled to the light of life and of the body. The essence of the care of the same is the simplicity, that is, the completeness, concentration, and consistency of the inner life. For this light-sense the word of God now necessarily becomes the inner light of life, which gradually drives out even from the corporal and sensual sphere of life all elements of obscuration, all fragments of the old night, till the whole being of the man, even his exterior, is not only illumined, but also diffuses light, a clear, beautiful, and consecrated beam of God.” Lange.

[“And in clear dream and solemn vision

Tell her of things that no gross ear may hear,

Till oft converse with Heavenly habitant

Begins to cast a beam on th’ outward shape,

The unpolluted temple of the mind,

And turns it by degrees to the soul’s essence,

Till all be made immortal.”               Comus.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Outward hearing of the word joined with inward enmity and perverted designs.—The unappeasable greediness for ever greater and greater wonders.—The request for a sign from Heaven an indirect proof of the reality of the other signs on earth.—The resurrection of the Lord the highest sign of His Messianic dignity.—Jonah and the Son of man: 1. What advantage the former appears to have over the latter; 2. wherein both stand on a level; 3. wherein the latter infinitely excels the former.—More than Solomon is here. We consider in reference to this saying: 1. How strange it sounds; 2. how true it Isaiah 3. of what moment it continues to be.—The wisdom of the Saviour and the wisdom of Solomon: the first had: 1. A higher originality (Joh_6:46); 2. a wider extent (Joh_6:68); 3. a more salutary purpose (Mat_5:48) than the latter.—The different grades of the damnableness of sin: 1. Penitent heathen rise up against unbelieving Jews; 2. Jews longing for salvation against hypocritical nominal Christians.—The greater the privilege the heavier the responsibility.—The brightest light is lost when it is either: 1. Set under a bushel, or 2. viewed with diseased eyes.—As the light for the eye and the eye for the light, so are Christ and man made for one another.—The hopeless condition of the man in whom the inner light is wholly darkened; it is darkness: 1. In him; 2. around him; 3. above him.—The single eye and the illumined body, the diseased eye and the darkened body.—What must there be in man if he will rightly understand and esteem revealed truth? Comp. Joh_7:17.—Between truth and man there exists the same inner relation as between the light and the eye.

Starke:—Brentius:—In the work of salvation God does nothing new for any man: the matter proceeds in the way once shown in the Holy Scriptures.—Cramer:—The Old and the New Testament explain one another clearly.—Hedinger:—Terrible is it that the poor yet right-minded heathen, the blind people who yet have striven after virtue, shall herein condemn many Christians.—The doctrine of the last judgment is a fundamental article of the Christian religion, and must therefore be often urged with great earnestness.—Bibl. Wirt:—Christian preachers should be in an exceptional manner a light in the Lord.—Man needs that his soul should be filled with the divine light if he will do the works of light.—Enter diligently into thine heart and be for its enlightenment and amendment unweariedly concerned. Psa_139:23-24. The condition of a man before, in, and after, conversion may be well compared with the night, with the break of day, and with day itself.

Heubner:—Christ must hare accounted the history of Jonah a true history, for, a. He would not have compared Himself with a fabulous hero; b. nor could the Ninevites, if their repentance after Jonah’s preaching is a mere fable, judge the Jews of that time.—Every converted man is for the unconverted that know him a judging, condemning example.—How often do people run and study for the sake of earthly wisdom, while Christ’s wisdom, so near at hand, is despised; men have a disgust at it, and deify the wisdom of the dust.

Footnotes:

Luk_11:29.—According to the reading approved by Tischendorf on preponderating grounds: ἡ ãåíåὰ áὔôç ãåíåὰ ðïíçñÜ åóôéí . [Supported also by Cod. Sin.]

Luk_11:29.—Rec.: ôïῦ ðñïöÞôïõ , taken from the parallel passage in Matthew. [Omitted also by Cod. Sin.]

Luk_11:34.—Rec.: ὁ ὀöèáëìüò —Mat_6:22— óïõ is, however, decidedly supported and already approved by Griesbach. [Supported also by Cod. Sin.]