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With observation, ìåôὰ ðáñáôçñÞóåùò , literally, with or under observation, so that it can be recognized and observed by outward tokens, and that one could exclaim with assurance, Lo here, lo there! We are not primarily to understand this of external pomp and brilliancy ( ìåôὰ ðïëëῆò öáíôáóßáò , Grotius), but in general everything external that can be seen with the eyes and grasped with the hand. By this answer, the Pharisees are at the same time instructed that it is a fruitless trouble to inquire after a definitely fixed point of time, when it shall suddenly come. Of this unnoticed coming of the kingdom of God, the Saviour could not well give any more striking proof than this, that the kingdom of heaven had already in its incipiency appeared among them, without their having even yet in their earthly-mindedness observed it.
Luk_17:21. In the midst of you, ἐíôὸò ὑìῶí .—From the future to which they were looking, the Saviour directs their eyes back upon to-day. Inasmuch as the King of the kingdom of God was already living and working in the midst of them, this kingdom had already come potentially into their nearest neighborhood. The explanation, in animis vestris (Chrysostom, Luther, Olshausen, Heubner, Hilgenfeld, and others, and also the deceased Amsterdam Professor A. des Amorie van der Hoeven), is indeed capable of being philologically defended, and finds also some weak analogies in individual Pauline expressions (1Co_4:20; Rom_14:17; Col_1:13), but is not favored by the connection. For the translation, “in the midst of you,” there are the following grounds: 1. That in this way the antithesis between the external coming and the being already actually present is kept more sharply defined; 2. that the kingdom of God had not been truly set up in the hearts of these Pharisees; 3. that in Joh_1:26; Joh_12:35; Luk_7:16; Luk_11:20, the same thought which is expressed in our translation is expressed in another way, while, on the other hand, for the apparently profound but really not very intelligible statement, that the kingdom of God is found in the man, no other proofs are to be found in our Lord’s own words. It would be better, without doubt, to connect with one another the two significations of ἐíôüò (Stier, Lange), although there is nothing contained in the connection that decidedly requires us to interpret ἐíôüò otherwise than as the simple antithesis of ἔîù , intra vos. Not with entire injustice, apparently, Meyer calls the idea of the kingdom of God as an ethical condition in the soul, modern, not historico-biblical.
Luk_17:22. And He said unto the disciples.—The Pharisees have been sufficiently disposed of with the above answer, which Luke has alone preserved to us. But the Saviour does not on this occasion give up the subject which they had brought into discussion, but continues, perhaps in their presence, to instruct His disciples still further about the approaching coming of the kingdom of God. In the eschatological discourse, Luk_17:22-37, which now lies before us, the same phenomenon is repeated which we have already several times met with. Here also Luke communicates sayings which Matthew has presented in an entirely different connection, and again the inquiry cannot be avoided, which of the two has maintained the most exact chronological sequence. If we compare the first and the third Gospels with one another, it appears that Luk_17:23-24, and Mat_24:23-27; moreover Luk_17:26-27, and Mat_24:37-39, as well as Luk_17:35-37, and Mat_24:40-41, coincide almost verbally. Now, it is true the possibility cannot be doubted that our Lord uttered several of these sayings on several occasions, but, on the other hand, it can hardly be denied that many of the words here given by Luke appear in Matthew in a much more happy and natural connection; that it is much more probable that our Saviour, towards the end of His life, spoke to His intimate disciples alone concerning these secrets of the future, and not some weeks before to a circle of hearers so mixed as that in the midst of which Luke here places us; and that finally it is almost inconceivable that the long eschatological discourse, Matthew 24, should have consisted in a great measure only of reminiscences of a previous instruction, Luke 17. From all these grounds we believe that Luk_17:22-37 stands in about the same relation to Matthew 24 as Luk_6:17-49 and Luk_12:22 seq., to Mat_5:7. In opposition to Schleiermacher and Olshausen, who concede to Luke the preference, we think, with Ebrard, Lange, and others, that we see in the redaction of the third gospel in this place heterogeneous elements, that is, such as, although in themselves undoubtedly genuine, have yet been here inserted only because of the opportunity, and outside of their original historic connection; but we prefer to assume that the Saviour on this occasion did communicate a certain eschatological instruction, without, however, already, as afterwards, speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem, but that individual striking expressions from a later discourse have been by Luke woven proleptically into this one. How much has been transferred from one discourse to the other, it is probable will never admit of any other than an approximate determination.
Days will come.—The psychological connection of this first word to the disciples, and of the last to the Pharisees, strikes the eye at once. Scarcely has the Saviour uttered the assurance that the kingdom of God already exists in the midst of them, when He thinks also of the prerogative of His disciples, who had been already received into the same, but at the same time—and how could it at such a time be otherwise?—on the pain of impending separation. It is as if He feared that His friends, from the assurance that the kingdom of God had already really come, would now also draw the conclusion that the King would forever abide in the midst of them. As He is far from blowing up again even the weakest spark of an earthly hope which He had previously controverted with so much emphasis, He now makes haste to prepare them for grievous times. Under the pressure of manifold tribulations, they were for the moment to wish in vain to see even one of the victorious blessed days of the revelation of the Messiah. The Saviour is thinking of one of those days of happiness such as only the áἰὼí ìÝëëùí could and should bring. He does not mean that they would long for one of the days which they were now experiencing in converse with the yet humiliated Christ, but that they would sigh after the revelation of the Glorified One, who should bring an end to all their wretchedness and satisfaction to their longing. We must not, therefore, explain with Bengel, “cupiditatem illam postea sedavit Paracletus,” but rather, “hanc cupiditatem tantummodo sedare potest Parusia.” Impelled by this natural but impatient longing, they might easily incur the danger of allowing themselves to be misled by false Messiahs, against which the Saviour warns them in the following verse.
Luk_17:23. Go not after them.—Comp. Mat_24:23-27, and Lange, ad loc. It is without ground that Schleiermacher here disputes that we are to understand false Messiahs. Let the reader call to mind also the Goetæ, who shortly before the destruction of the Jewish state led so many thousands by the promise of miracles into the wilderness and into destruction. See Josephus, Ant. Jdg_20:8; Jdg_20:6. Comp. De Bell. Jdg_2:13; Jdg_2:4; Act_5:36-37; Act_21:38, and Homily 76 of Chrysostom.
Luk_17:24. The lightning that lighteneth.—The tertium comparationis between the Parusia and the swiftness of the lightning which shows itself on the dark sky, is not its unexpected appearance, but its indubitable visibleness; even as one, when the lightning flashes from one region of heaven to the other ( ἐê ôῆò , sc. ÷þñáò ), does not need to inquire whither and where the flash shows itself. If the day of the Son of Man is once present, this will no more be a matter of doubt than it is a matter of uncertainty whether ἡ ἀóôñáðὴ ἡ ἀóôñÜðôïõóá has darted through the air or not. ἩìÝñá signifies here the ðáñïõóßá , which the days designated in Luk_17:22, ἡìÝñáé , do not precede, but follow.
Luk_17:25. First … suffer many things.—The prediction of suffering and dying which often returns in this last period is here, too, not wanting. “In Luk_17:25 He gives the great deciding announcement against all false ðáñáôÞñçóéò , that the Messiah previously, in a first manifestation, must suffer and be rejected. See on Mat_16:21; Mat_17:12.” Stier. One must, therefore, not by any means, as the Pharisees do, expect the promised Parusia too early, since this must in any case be preceded by a mournful event. Our Lord cannot with sufficient earnestness impress it on the minds of His disciples that His way goes down into the depth, while they are secretly dreaming of high places of honor.
Luk_17:26. In the days of Noah.—Comp. on Mat_24:37-39. Although the coming of our Lord will be the perfect redemption of His disciples out of all tribulations (comp. Luk_17:22), it is here represented especially as a judgment upon the godless and unbelieving world, and this judgment is typified in the fate of the contemporaries of Noah. The Asyndeton between the different verbs heightens the living and graphic force of the portrayal of their careless life in the midst of the most powerful voices of awakening. We may, perhaps, from the fact that the terrible side of the event is made especially conspicuous, while the delivery of Noah is not mentioned, conclude with some probability that the Saviour addressed these words originally to a wider circle than that of His believing disciples.
Luk_17:28. In the days of Lot.—The second example, which Luke alone relates, is especially remarkable, not only on account of the peculiar coincidence in character between the here-mentioned time and the antediluvian period, but also on account of the striking application which in Luk_17:32 is made of the history of Lot’s wife. Here also there is no other conception of the destruction of Sodom implied than that in Genesis 19. and elsewhere.
Luk_17:31. He which shall be upon the housetop.—The Saviour gives the counsel to immediate flight, with the abandonment, in case of need, of all that is possessed on earth. It is true, He has not in this connection, as in Mat_24:17, as yet spoken of the destruction of Jerusalem; but the admonition is in this place not on that account by any means incongruous, as De Wette precipitately asserts. Nor have we, with Meyer, to understand a flight for deliverance to the coming Messiah. This last explanation has visibly arisen from perplexity, and is only seemingly favored by the example of Lot’s wife. We may here, in general, understand a city taken by invading enemies, from which it is only possible to save one’s life, if he hurries away at the instant, without, at the danger of life, dragging anything with him. The same is the case with him who is fallen upon in the field, which is here conceived quite as generally as the city. The main thought is evidently this: that no temporal possession ought to engage the interest when eternal good must be won at any price. Comp. Mat_16:25. [I do not see how any one can regard Luk_17:31-37 as anything else than a fragment of our Saviour’s subsequent prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem. It fits perfectly into that, while it is impossible to see any immediate applicableness here. It is doubtless inserted here as an element of the eschatological discourse of our Lord, and so far connected with the preceding context.—C. C. S.]
Luk_17:32. Remember Lot’s wife.—It would be inferring too much from this remark of our Lord to wish to conclude from it that He assumes that Lot’s wife was, on account of her momentary transgression, given over to endless misery. Much more temperately has Luther judged concerning it: “For her disobedience’ sake, Lot’s wife must bear a temporal punishment, but her soul is saved. 1Co_5:5.” As to the rest, in what her trespass consisted is sufficiently well known from Gen_19:26. Through her unlawful looking back, she has become the type of that earthly-mindedness and self-seeking which wishes to preserve the lesser at any cost, and thereby loses the greater. It is worthy of note, that in the book of the Wisdom of Solomon, also, Luk_10:7, the same warning image is held up before us, so that this passage in the Gospel is one of the very few in which we may, perhaps, find an indirect allusion to one of the Apocryphal books. Respecting the exact manner of the death of Lot’s wife, and the legend concerning the pillar of salt, see the Commentaries on Genesis 19, especially the remarks of T. W. I. Schroeder, Das erste Buch Mosis ausgelegt, Berlin, 1844, p. 373.
Luk_17:33. Whosoever shall seek to save his life.—See on Luk_9:24, and comp. Mat_10:39; Joh_12:25.— ÆùïãïíÞóåé , preserve alive, as in Act_7:19, namely, in the last decisive moment at the Parusia. The Saviour’s discourse here goes yet deeper, inasmuch as He here speaks not merely, as before, Luk_17:26-30, of the danger which threatens those entirely careless, but also of that which threatens such disciples as, like Lot’s wife, had indeed made the first step towards escaping the future destruction, but, alas! afterwards remained standing midway in the way of salvation.
Luk_17:34. I tell you—Comp. on Mat_24:40 seq. The Saviour strengthens His admonition still more by allusion to the definitive terrible division, which will coincide with the great decision. At His coming, that is torn asunder which outwardly, as well as inwardly, appeared to be as closely as possible joined together. Two examples thereof Luke gives, while the third, Luk_17:36, appears to be transferred from Mat_24:40. See notes on the text. The first is taken from companionship at night; the other from companionship by day. Ôáýôῃ ôῇ íõêôß is not in the sense of tempore illo calamitoso (Grotius, Kuinoel), but is a simple designation of the time which one is wont to spend upon his bed, perhaps with the secondary thought of the uncertainty of the Parusia, which comes as a thief in the night, Mat_24:44. At the beginning of the second example, Luk_17:35, we might, on the other hand, supply: ôáýôῃ ôῇ ἡìÝñᾳ . Unexpectedly does the Parusia come; whether by day or by night is all one; dissimilar, only outwardly united things are then forever severed. By the êëßíç ìßá we have not necessarily to understand conjugal companionship—at all events both pronouns are masculine—but every connection which is intimate enough to entitle to a common bed, as was the case in the following example with the common labor by day. On the other hand, there appear in the other example two women ( ìßá , ἑôÝñá ), who, according to the Oriental custom, are grinding upon the hand-mill there in use, Exo_11:5, and are, therefore, occupied with one and the same appointed work. No matter now whether the Parusia come by day or by night, one of the two is taken away, the other left;—in which, of course, it is understood that our Lord is not thereby giving any fixed rule. Two may be on one bed and both taken; two, on the other hand, may be laboring in one field and both be left; but it may be that even the most intimate companionship will be interrupted by the Parusia. The one is taken, comp. Joh_12:26; Joh_14:3, the other surrendered, without respect of persons, to the certain catastrophe.
Luk_17:36. Where, Lord?—Not an expression of terror (quomodo, Kuinoel), but a definite inquiry after the locality in which all this should take place; even as the Pharisees, Luk_17:20, had inquired definitely after the time of the revelation of the kingdom of God. Although now the Saviour, in this connection, according to Luke, has not been speaking particularly of the destruction of Jerusalem, it seems, however, as if the disciples had a presentiment that the predicted scenes of terror might, perhaps, come to pass even in their neighborhood, in the Holy Land, and wished now that the Saviour would compose their fears about this. He, however, gives them neither an evasive nor an entirely definite answer; but only recites a proverb, respecting which, comp. on Mat_24:28.— Ôὸ óῶìá , in Matt. ôὸ ðôῶìá , to be understood especially of the animal body, which as soon as it lies lifeless becomes the welcome spoil of birds of prey. If one does not incline to see here any allusion to the Roman eagles which swept down upon the unhappy Jerusalem, as upon their prey, we can then, in general, paraphrase this answer thus (Stier): “Everything in its time and order, according to what belongs to it! Ask not with importunate curiosity after Where, How, or When, but behold: Where the corruption of death is, there must the eagles come! When it has become night, then will the lightning bring an awful light! Only do you take care to be found as the living and as children of the light!” In no case have we occasion, with De Wette, to complain that the enigmatical proverb has, by the redaction of Luke, lost in perspicuity.
2. A threefold coming of the kingdom of God is to be distinguished: First, the Saviour appeared in humility, in an humble servant’s form; after that He comes in the Spirit invisible, but with heightened power; finally, in majesty and glory in the clouds of heaven. The first phase endured thirty-three years, the second has endured already more than eighteen centuries, and the last makes of the present economy a decisive end. The first period was concluded by the Passion and Death of our Lord; the second will not end without a sorrowful Passion of His dearly-purchased church; the last reveals the perfect glory which shall come in the place of suffering and striving, for the Head as for the members.
3. It is a great error and gives occasion to many misunderstandings, when that which our Lord here says of the kingdom of God is applied without any limitation to the Christian church. So long as the kingdom of God is not fully come, it becomes no one to say decisively and exclusively: “Lo here! or, lo there!” By this, however, it is by no means intended that there are no definite signs by which the true Church of the Saviour can be known as such, and distinguished from false, apostate churches. Word and sacraments remain the tokens of the true outwardly visible Church, to which every believer must attach himself; and therefore the Evangelical Church of our days is to strive not less against a one-sided Clericalism than against a sickly Darbism, which does not allow the church constitution established by the Saviour and His apostles to assert its rights.
4. The Donatistic striving which has revealed itself in the course of the centuries in all manner of forms among believers, is here condemned by our Lord in its inmost essence. Men are bent upon making even now an external distinction upon one bed, upon one field, at one mill, between believers and unbelievers; the Saviour, on the other hand, will not have the external union of that which is dissimilar, if it already exists, destroyed by force until He Himself appear with His fan in His hand. Separatism is an anticipation of the great day of decision.
5. There is a heaven-wide distinction between the eschatological expectations which the friends of modern liberalism cherish, and those which are called forth by this teaching of our Lord. It is commonly supposed that in the proportion in which the principles of humanitarianism, culture, free thought, and the like, are more and more widely diffused, the world will become ever increasingly wiser, better, and happier. The Saviour here opens to us a very different view of the times immediately before the end. Of culture and false semblance of external secular enlightenment, there will then undoubtedly be as little lack as in the days of Noah and Lot. But instead now of the great mass becoming continually better and more earnest, we have to expect, on the other hand, according to the Saviour’s words, a time of carelessness, hardening, and carnal security, just like that which preceded the destruction of the ancient world and the ruin of Sodom. These are the perilous times in the last days, of which Paul also speaks, 2Ti_3:1; and all which in the Apocalypse is prophesied of the great apostasy of the last period of the world, is only a wider expansion of the theme here given.
6. The Saviour emphatically teaches us how the human race remains at all times ever alike in the midst of continually growing judgments of God. The contemporaries of Noah and of Lot, the Antichrist who shall arise before the last Parusia, are men of one sort. On these grounds the here-mentioned earlier judgments may also be regarded as types and symbols of the yet following ones, and of the last of all. Because in the neighborhood of Noah and of Lot carelessness had reached the highest grade, these generations are especially fitted to be the type of the last generation which shall see the coming of the Lord. No wonder, therefore, that in the epistles of Peter and Jude the history of the flood and of the destruction of Sodom have attributed to them so great a significance and so high a value. See 1Pe_3:19-21; 2Pe_2:5-9; Judges 7.
7. There exists a sublime parallelism in the way in which the Saviour, Luk_17:26-29, has described the days of Noah and Lot. This uniformity and this rhythm of the words acquires, however, a higher significance if we find therein an exact expression of the wonderful agreement which exists between men and things in earlier and later times. The careless worldly life reveals itself from century to century, every time in the same stereotyped phases and forms. But just as unexpected as were the flood and fiery rain, will also the last coming of the Lord be—a day which begins like other days, and finds the one on his bed, another in the field, and a third at the mill; but it will not end like other days.
Starke:—Canstein:—Whoever conceives Christ’s kingdom as fleshly and earthly, will never learn to know it, much less attain thereto.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Whoever seeks the kingdom of God without himself, loses it within himself.—Hedinger:.—Christ’s comfort, presence, and light often hide themselves in temptation.—Quesnel:—Let us not follow that which men tell us, but that which Jesus Christ first told us in the Scriptures and confirmed by miracles.—What takes place little by little through faith will take place in one instant when Jesus Christ shall show Himself visibly to all men to judge the world. Now is the day of man, then will it be the day of God.—Canstein:—The securer the world, the nearer Jesus Christ with His kingdom, 1Th_5:3.—Brentius:—It is an evil plague that men, when God’s judgments break in, become the worse the longer they threaten; this should of right bring us to consideration.—Like sins occasion like punishments, God in His nature unchangeable.—The end of a thing is better than the beginning; yet let us seek to persevere in the way that we have begun even to the end, that we may not tempt God, Rev_3:5.—When people are diverse, so is also the end of the world diverse.—When proverbs have a good Biblical sense, and express a matter briefly, we may very profitably and becomingly avail ourselves of them.
Heubner:—The fleshly man esteems all according to the outward pomp and glitter.—It is suspicious for a preacher to create a furore, which is often only a fire of straw.—The salvation of the church comes not through intervention of the power of the state, but from within.—Knapp:—Live thyself continually deeper and more intimately into the kingdom of God.—Chr. Palmer:—How differently our Lord answers the question, When does the kingdom of God appear? in the case of different questioners: a. to those who as yet knew nothing thereof He says, It is already here; b. those who already bear it in their hearts He points to the future, for which they should watch, wait, and hold themselves ready.—Whereby we may try ourselves as to whether our hope in the coming of the kingdom of God is not a delusive one.—Neander:—The kingdom of God cometh not with observation.
Footnotes:
Luk_17:23.—Rec.: ἰäïὺ ὧäå ἢ ἰäïὺ åêåé . The ἤ before the second ἰäïý . although Lachmann defends it, appears to be borrowed from Mat_24:23, and is properly rejected by Tischendorf, [Meyer, Tregelles, Alford.]
Luk_17:24.— Êáß , although dubious, as it is wanting in many manuscripts, is found, however, in B., D., [om., Cod. Sin.,] and has been on this ground, as it appears, properly retained by Tischendorf and at least bracketed by Lachmann. [Tischendorf in his 7th ed. omits it, as do Meyer, Tregelles, Alford.—C. C. S.]
Luk_17:36.—In all probability an interpolation from Mat_24:40, and therefore rejected by almost all later critics, with the exception of Scholz. De Wette hesitates. [Om., A., B., Cod. Sin., 14 other uncials, and much the larger part of the cursives.—C. C. S.]
Luk_17:37.— Êáß is rightly received by Tischendorf into the text, on the authority of B., [Cod. Sin.,] L., [U., Ë .]