37And in the daytime [
ôὰò ἡìÝñáò
] he was teaching [or, was wont to teach] in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode [lodged] in the mount that is called themount of Olives. 38And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Luk_21:37. And in the daytime He was wont to teach.—Luke does not at all mean that our Saviour even after the eschatological discourse continued to teach in the temple, but he simply sums up what had been wont to take place in the days immediately preceding; looking back therewith to Luk_20:1. This appears as well from the expression:
ἦí äéäÜóêùí
, as from
ôὰò ἡìÝñáò
, which in general refers to the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday of the Passion-Week. The purpose is not therefore to state that our Lord delivered the eschatological discourse also in the temple, but only to indicate that so long as He continued in the temple He spoke there as a Teacher, and was listened to by the people with undiminished interest, so that He by no means saw Himself constrained to leave the sanctuary for want of hearers. However, the account of Luke must be complemented by that of the other Evangelists. In this way we know what Luke has already (Luk_21:5) caused us to conjecture, namely, that the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem was not delivered till after the leaving of the temple, while we become aware from Joh_12:36 that He after the departure from the temple hid Himself from the Jews (
ἐêñὑâç
), which undoubtedly appears to point to a seclusion of some hours, or very possibly of a whole day, before the beginning of the last conflict. If everything does not deceive us, then all took place in the Tuesday of the Passion-Week, which is stated Mat_21:20; Mat_26:5; Mar_11:20 to Mar_14:2; Luk_20:1 to Luk_21:36; so that we find no other day in the whole public life of our Lord, of which the Synoptics give us so rich an historical survey. The occurrence with the Greeks in the temple, Joh_12:20-36, may have taken place on the Monday. Over the Wednesday, the whole of which our Lord, as it appears, spent in Bethany, there is spread an impenetrable veil. We may suppose (with Lange) that He on this day made the wider circle of His followers acquainted with His approaching suffering. [The extreme difficulty which the apostles themselves, up to the very hour of our Lord’s arrest, had in admitting the idea of any such thing befalling Him, appears to render it exceedingly improbable that the wider circle of His disciples had any intimation of it beforehand, or at least any but the most general intimation; there is certainly not the least hint in any of the Gospels that they had.—C. C. S.] The conjecture (Wieseler) that Joh_12:44-50, is also to be considered as a part of an address which our Lord at this very time delivered as a final address to the people, appears to us less probable. These concluding phrases alter the general account, Joh_12:37-43, appear rather to bear a chrestomathical character, and to contain a freely-condensed summary of that which at all times, and especially in the last days, had been the main substance of the preaching of our Lord.
Luk_21:38. And all the people came early in the morning,
ὤñèñéæå ðñὸò áὐôüí
. De Wette: “Sought Him out eagerly.” According to LXX, Psa_78:34; Psa_63:2et alib. Better in the sense of mane veniebat, see Luther, Vulgate, Meyer, and Ewald. Designation of the undiminished desire of the people, who could scarcely wait for the day in order to go again to Him, and who therewith, so long as they had not yet been wholly misled and blinded by the Pharisees, continually proved that they knew how to appreciate their Prophet. A few days afterwards we see all changed, seeLuk_23:18. This statement of Luke is worthy of note on this account also, that it shows that the few last days which our Lord abode in the temple must have been very long days, on which therefore there could not have wanted time for so much as took place, for instance on the Tuesday. Tertullian’s translation therefore holds good, De luculo conveniebant; although it was a not very happy thought of Grotius, when he from this early hastening of so many hearers, drew the conclusion: apparet, non caruisse fructu monitum illud Christi:
ὰãñìðíåῖôå
. This pregnant admonition was certainly not fulfilled merely by so inadequate a proof of interest; besides, it had not even been addressed to the people, but specially to the Twelve.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. See on the Exegetical and Critical.
2. The imperturbable composure with which our Lord, so long as it pleased Him, held to the end the post assigned Him, and continued His daily usage of teaching, presents a striking contrast to the restlessness and perplexity of His enemies, which increases every moment. Here also the wisdom of the old word of Scripture, Pro_28:1; Isa_57:21, was revealed.
3. The undiminished result of the preaching of our Lord, in which He was able to rejoice even to the very last day, is a new argument for the voluntariness and unconstrainedness of His surrender to the might of His foes.
4. The secret of the unbroken energy which our Lord revealed even unto the last hour of His public life, is to be sought in the holy hours upon the Mount of Olives.
5. It is worthy of note that our Lord, so far as we know, on the last Tuesday and Wednesday of His public life, performs no more miracles; the time for that had already passed.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world,” Joh_9:5.—Our Lord does not leave the temple till it has become plain before all men’s eyes that He leaves it as Victor.—The hen does not become weary of calling her brood, even when she sees the eagles coming from afar.—The Mount of Olives, the sanctuary of the solitary prayer of our Lord.—The holy consecration to the agony of Gethsemane.—The high significance which the principal mountains of the Holy Land had in the history of the Life and Passion of the Lord. Behind Him there already lie the Mount of Temptation, where He overcame the Evil One; the Mount of the Beatitudes, where He as Teacher proclaimed the constitution of His kingdom; the Mount of the Transfiguration, where He in the distance beheld His suffering and His glory. Before Him yet lies the Mount of the Cross, where the most agonizing strife was to be striven; the Mount of the Manifestation (Mat_28:16), where the most glorious triumph was to be celebrated; the Mount of the Ascension, where the noblest crown was to be attained.—The final stillness before the final strife.—How remarkable, and yet how indecisive, the last undiminished interest of the people in the instruction of our Lord is.—The early and week-day preaching of the Lord.—Ora et labora.
Starke:—When the end of their life draws manifestly near, then especially must servants of God faithfully administer their function, and seek thus to conclude it worthily, 2Pe_1:13-14.—Christ’s servants must early and late serve the Lord, even to the end of their life, Act_13:36; Isa_40:31.—Labor for our neighbor’s salvation must be joined with prayer.—Quesnel:—Oh, how happy and blooming is the Church when a people hungering for God’s word has a faithful minister, who is even as hungry and eager to feed them therewith, 1Th_3:6; 1Th_3:10; Rom_1:11.—To neglect God’s worship and preaching for the sake of comfort and convenience, is not capable of being answered before God, Psa_42:4.—The love and the thronging of a people after God’s word encourage the zeal of the pastor; the zeal and diligence of the pastor encourage the people, 1Th_2:8-13; Pro_27:17.—Arndt:—Jesus’ threefold elevation: 1. The elevation of His body; 2. of His soul; 3. of His spirit. “If Jesus had need, in order to preserve to Himself freshness and vigor for His day’s work, now and then to collect Himself in stillness and prayer, we need it yet much more, and the unhappy ones who know no still hours in their life, know not at all how much they lack. Not in vain does the old proverb join labor and praying, to intimate thereby that prayer, though it is a labor, is at the same time an enjoyment, yea, an enjoyment of all enjoyments and the chief refreshment from labor, the chief consecration for labor. Verily, they have done most in their life that have prayed most, and very rich matter is therefore contained in the little rhyme: “Halt dich rein, acht dich klein, sei gern allein, mit Gott gemein!” [Keep thyself pure; esteem thyself of small account; love to be alone, together with God].
Footnotes:
Luk_21:38.—After Luk_21:38 some cursive manuscripts have the Pericope de adultera, Joh_7:53 to Joh_8:11. On internal grounds the reception of this event into this connection is vindicated by Lange (Leben Jesu, ad locum). Comp. Lange on Matthew. In his work on the Gospel of John, ad locum, the author has modified this view.
