Lange Commentary - Luke 24:36

Lange Commentary - Luke 24:36 - 24:48

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Lange Commentary - Luke 24:36 - 24:48

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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

2. The Appearing at Evening (Luk_24:36-45)

(Parallel with Mar_16:14-18; Joh_20:19-23)

³⁶And as they thus spake, Jesus [he] himself stood in the midst of them, and saithunto them, Peace be unto you. ³⁷But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposedthat they had seen a spirit. ³⁸And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and whydo thoughts arise in your hearts [heart]? ³⁹Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

⁴⁰And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. ⁴¹And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat [anything to eat, âñþóéìïí ]? ⁴²And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, ⁴³and of a honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them. ⁴⁴And he said unto them, These are the [my] words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. ⁴⁵Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk_24:36. He Himself stood.—As appears from Joh_20:19, though the doors were closed. Suddenly He stands there, without any one knowing how He has come in, ἐí ìÝóῳ , id significantius quam in medium, Bengel. They hear the voice which they would have known again from thousands, and which repeats the wonted salutation of peace, which, however, from these lips and in this moment had an infinitely higher significance, which involuntarily reminds the disciples of the farewell benediction, Joh_14:27. With this word begins the evening appearance, which we unhesitatingly venture to name the crown of all His appearances on the Resurrection day. Till now He has satisfied individual needs, but now He comes into the united circle, into the first church of His own. No appearance had been so long and so carefully prepared for as precisely this; all that had been seen or heard besides on this day, were so many single beams which were to be concentrated into this focus. In no appearance, moreover, did our Lord reveal Himself with so many infallible signs (Act_1:5), and so victoriously overcome the unbelief of His first witnesses, as here. For their whole inner life, yea, for the founding of the kingdom of God upon the empty sepulchre as its foundation and corner-stone, was this evening of the highest significance and greatest worth. Nor can we wonder, then, that not less than three Evangelists give testimony to what here took place, each in His peculiar way. Mark, who visibly hurries rapidly to the end, does this only briefly in Luk_24:14, and proceeds, Luk_24:15 seq., to the general concluding account John places before our eyes what here took place, on its most inward spiritual side, and relates, moreover, that Thomas to-day was not in the company. Luke, on the other hand, maintains his character as Historiographer, by communicating the external course of what here took place, and with special detail, as physician, gives the visible and sensible proofs of the new life and corporeality of the Lord. Without making any further distinction between hours and days, he lets this evening appearance, with which for the true and inner life of the apostles everything was decided, coalesce with the last commands of the departure of the Lord as He blessed them, Modern criticism which would prove that our Lord, according to Luke, went to heaven on the very day of His Resurrection, and that, according to Mark, from a closed chamber, had here, therefore, in view of the fragmentary character of these last lines of the Evangelical history, an exceedingly easy work, but has unequivocally shown its lack of good will to connect these fragments into a well-ordered whole. We believe ourselves fully in the right when we consider Luke’s account respecting the evening appearance as ended in Luk_24:43, and see in Luk_24:44 the beginning of the last promised precepts which the Lord, according to all the Synoptics, imparted to His disciples shortly before His departure from the earth.

Luk_24:37. Terrified and affrighted.—From Joh_20:20, also, it appears that the disciples only became joyful after the Lord had shown them His hands and side, and that they, therefore, even a moment before, were terrified and affrighted. Even the manner of His entrance must have contributed to this, and however much they had begun to be prepared by all the events of the day for this meeting, yet this surprise must have come upon them the more strongly as the message of the angels had directed them to Galilee, and they, therefore, could by no means reckon on an appearance of the Master in the midst of them this very evening at Jerusalem. In their heart now prevails, as at evening in nature, a mixture of light and darkness. There is no longer the hopelessness of spirit, the bewilderment and uneasiness of early morning. The need of speaking together about the many enigmatical, nay, self-contradictory experiences of this day, has united them. In the hearts of some a spark of faith has arisen at Simon’s account; it is these who with joy greet the Emmaus disciples (Luk_24:34). With others, however, even after the account given by these latter, the understanding yet reluctates to yield adherence to that which the heart above everything desires. To these doubts is now added fear of the Jews, anxious care for the future; grounds enough for the Lord in His appearance to rebuke them in His peculiar way (Mark 16).

Luk_24:38. Why are ye troubled.—With this question begins the rebuke of unbelief. They believe that they see a departed spirit which has returned from Hades, öÜíôáóìá , an umbra veiled in the semblance of a body, and, therefore, in a certain sense, a dead man; He will show them that it is He Himself who stands living before them, and this not in a seeming but in a real body, although one in the commencement of its glorification. We must represent to ourselves the immeasurable contrast between the mood of our Lord, who has peace and gives peace, and over against that the feelings of those who, as it were, will with trembling hands, scare back the supposed spectre into the spiritual world, and through their unbelief disturb our Lord’s enjoyment of the noblest evening of His life—this must we do in order to comprehend the whole value of the condescending goodness with which He in this address stoops to those of little faith. He asks them why thoughts, that is, scruples of a discouraging nature, doubting and gainsaying thoughts, arise in their hearts, since they without such wretched misgivings ought at once to have recognized Him as their living Master, and now He even encourages them to do what He had not even permitted to Mary. In order to convince them not only of the reality but also of the identity of His appearance, He will have them feel His hands and feet, nay, Himself, His body, and, moreover, especially the exposed places which bear the traces of the wounds of the cross. “But not merely as the signs of His crucifixion for the identification of His body did the Saviour show His wounds, but manifestly as signs of victory, proofs of His triumph over death. Moreover, therefore—and this is properly the deepest sense of His entering salutation—as the signs of peace, the peace of the sacrificial death, of the completed atonement.” Stier.

Luk_24:40. He showed them.—To the word He added, therefore, the deed of His love. Apparently they now actually touched with reverence the places indicated. Therefore John could afterwards justly speak of that which their hands had handled (1Jn_1:3), and it becomes doubly explicable why Thomas so decidedly demanded just this sign. He will in no respect be inferior to the others.

Luk_24:41. While they yet believed not for joy.—A profoundly psychological expression, which betrays the hand of the Evangelist-physician, and makes palpable to us the overwhelmingness of the joy which John (Luk_24:20), not without indirect retrospect to the promise of the Lord (Luk_16:22), so strikingly describes. First, the fact in their eyes was too terrible for them to be willing to believe. Now, it is too glorious for them to be able to believe. The anxiety as to yet possible illusion is the last dam which yet checks the stream of joy. In a similar temper of mind Jacob, perhaps, was, Gen_45:26.—But now that matters have come so far, our Lord rests not until He has completely accomplished His work on His disciples.

Luk_24:42. Broiled fish … honey-comb, ἀðὸìåëéóó .—Honey of bees, such as in Palestine is frequently found in clefts of the rock and in hollow trees, so that it may literally be said of the land: “a land flowing with milk and honey;” to be distinguished from the honey of grapes and dates, which even at the present time is everywhere there prepared and exported in various forms, and which appears to be spoken of in Gen_43:11. The here-named viands constituted, perhaps, the remains of the already ended supper of the disciples, who, perhaps, during the last days had, in the upper chamber of the unknown house in which our Lord celebrated His last Passover and elsewhere in the capital, a definite place of meeting. The objection that in the Old Testament angels also had eaten without possessing a true human body, could now no longer arise in the hearts of the disciples, since they had previously touched Him. Without further delay our Lord takes the food and eats it before their eyes, and they—drank with full draughts from the cup of the most blessed delight.

In this word and in this sign consisted, according to our opinion, the rebuke of the unbelief which Mark, in his summary statement (Luk_24:14), designates as the characteristic feature of this particular appearance. We account this, at least, as much more probable, than that our Lord, even after and besides that related by Luke, should have embittered the joy of this evening to His disciples by the holding of a severe preaching of repentance after they had recognized and believed Him. Then we should also have to assume that they had brought up something in their own excuse, as indeed, according to Jerome, Advers. Pelagium 2. in quibusdam exemplaribus el maxime in Grœcis codicibus, they did, where we read respecting the apostles: “Et illi satisfaciebant, dicentes: sœculum istud iniquitatis et incredulitatis substantia est, quœ non sinit per immundos spiritus veram Dei apprehendi virtutem, idcirco, jam nunc revela justitiam tuam.” The internal improbability of this addition, however, strikes the eve at once, but it deserves note how precisely that part of the evening appearance, which John exclusively relates, reveals again entirely the spirit of this apostle, visibly alludes back to a part of the farewell discourse, and is related also with the contents of the Synoptical gospels, comp. Joh_20:21 with Mat_10:40; Luk_24:22 with Mat_10:21-22; and Luk_24:33 with Mat_28:18. The second greeting of peace which he mentions, Luk_24:21, we are to place after all related by Luke, and to regard as the beginning of the farewell which our Lord actually takes, with His command and His promise, Luk_24:21-23. Peace is, therefore, here in the fullest sense of the word the first, and peace the last tone of the harmonious Resurrection-bell.

Luk_24:44. And He said unto them.—So far to be parallelized with Mar_16:15-18 as this, that Luke, on his part also, adds immediately to the evening appearance some commands and promises of our Lord, which He uttered shortly before His departure, although it is undoubtedly possible that Luk_24:44-45, still belong to the history of the evening. Yet it is, in view of the intimate connection of the different elements of discourse, Luk_24:44-49, more probable that Luke here also already relates by anticipation what took place immediately before the farewell, comp. Act_1:4-8. Not that the whole didactic activity of the Risen One is, therefore, here described in general (Ebrard), but out of the rich treasure of the bequest of his Lord’s word, the third Evangelist also, on his part, communicates various things, without its being possible, in Luk_24:44-49), to show the place where a mention of the forty days, Act_1:3, had to be inserted. Whether Luke, however, in the Acts, followed another tradition than the gospel in respect to the conclusion of the history of Jesus’ life, we believe that we must doubt. At least we find in the two narratives of the Ascension not a single feature contradictory to other features. For the Evangelist certainly gives by no means assurance at the end of his first book that our Saviour went on the very day of His Resurrection to Heaven. He here leaves the time entirely unmentioned, while he in the second work gives more particular explanations thereupon.

These are My words.—A somewhat abrupt beginning, which, however, does not by any means allude back to what immediately precedes. Our Lord, on the other hand, holds here, before He parts from His disciples, a grand retrospective review of His now almost accomplished earthly career. Even in the last meeting He holds up before their eyes the mirror of the Scriptures, to which He had so often directed them, and speaks of the days when He was yet with them, as of a period forever closed, which should now no more be continued through bodily manifestations.

In the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms.—As our Lord previously also had not satisfied Himself with bringing up several times, out of different parts of the Scripture, particular prophecies, and even before His death had given testimony to the Old Testament as a whole, Mat_23:35, so does He here also bring up the three chief portions of the canon, in order to indicate therewith that He points to the Scripture in its unity. The Psalms are here named as the beginning of the Hagiographa, and, at the same time, as the portion which in this contains the directest Messianic elements, even as the prophets do, and these two are therefore joined together as one by the omission of an article between.

Luk_24:45. Then opened He.—As elsewhere in the Scriptures, so also in Luke, it is emphatically placed first, that not only the Scripture must be opened for the understanding, but also the understanding and the heart for the Scripture, in order to understand the truth aright. See Luk_24:32; Act_16:14; and comp. Eph_1:18. Whether the Evangelist means the mediate or immediate opening of the understanding cannot, in view of the brevity of the expression, possibly be decided; but, unquestionably, it was such an one as was brought into effect directly by the Risen One Himself. How necessary this was even to the apostles of the Lord had been sufficiently shown by their scandal at His death, and their unbelief as to His Resurrection. What fruits it bore is to be seen on the first Whit-sunday, and afterwards in their epistles. Had it been indubitably certain that Luke was relating something that belongs to the first evening, we should then, perhaps, be able to suppose that he has in mind the same symbolical act of our Lord which is described Joh_20:22. In view of the brevity and the fragmentariness of the sacred narrative, it is, however, difficult to state here anything trustworthy.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. See on the parallels in Mark and in John.

2. The evening appearance gives us weighty information as to the corporeality of the Risen Redeemer. As is known, there has sometimes been ascribed to the Risen One a common human body, and everything which the sacred narratives contain that is mysterious surrounding His coming and going has been placed to the subjectivity of the Evangelists, and sometimes it has been asserted that He only showed Himself in a seeming body to His people (Kuhn, Marheinecke, Zeibig, and others). In opposition to both, this appearance especially gives us ground to assume that He bore a true but not common, a glorified, but not a merely seeming human investment; in a word, the same body, but with entirely different properties. In order to become acquainted with the nature of this His body, we are not, as so often is done, to apply our own conceptions of such a vehiculum as the standard of judging the evangelical narratives, but directly the reverse, to form our conception of a matter to us empirically entirely unknown, from and according to the evangelical narratives. The whole polemics of unbelief (e.g., Strauss, ii. p. 674) proceeds from the unprovable proposition that what holds good of a man not yet dead must also hold good of one risen. Precisely because here every analogy is wanting, it is also entirely inadmissible to borrow from our daily experience an argument against an account of an entirely unique condition. With greater right may we from the seeming contradictions of their statements, which we may well believe did not remain concealed from the Evangelists, thus derive an indirect argument for its strict objectivity. If we inquire, therefore, what conception we, according to their historically credible account, have to form of a glorified body, and especially of that of the Lord, we obtain about the following answer: It is palpable, not only as a whole, but also in its different parts; raised above space, so that it can in much shorter time than we transport itself from one locality to another; gifted with the capability, in subjection to a mightier will, of being sometimes visible, sometimes invisible. It bears the unmistakable traces of its former condition, but is at the same time raised above the confining limitations of this. It is, in a word, a spiritual body, no longer subject to the flesh, but filled, guided, borne by the spirit, and yet none the less a body. It can eat, but it no longer needs to eat (“Aliter absorbet terra aquam sitiens, aliter solis radiis candens,” Augustine, Ep. 49. “Cibo minime utebatur ad necessitatem, sed ut veritatem humanœ suœ naturœ suis comprobaret;” Zwingli, in Hist. Dom. Resurr. p. 60); it can reveal itself in one place, but is not bound to this one place; it can show itself within the sphere of this world, but is not limited to this sphere. Thus does the Resurrection of the body appear before us adorned with a threefold character of true freedom and beauty, and we are not surprised that with all the attractiveness of our Lord’s appearance to His people, yet, nevertheless, something mysterious respecting His personality hovered before their eyes, of which they were scarcely able to give an account to themselves, See, for instance, Joh_21:12.

3. Even so does the evening appearance deserve to be named a brilliant revelation of the inner life of the Risen One. There is a reflection of heavenly peace diffused over His whole being, and the comparison between the forty days of His second life and those of His temptation in the wilderness furnishes matter for a continuous antithesis. His whole previous life lies as a completed whole before His eyes, and the marks of the nails which He bears have become the honorable insignia of His love, and yet it is plainly shown that His word, “It is I Myself,” is, in the most extended sense of the word, true, and that death has indeed changed His condition, but not His heart. As the appearance at the Sea of Tiberias, Joh_21:1-14, shows a noticeable coincidence with the miraculous draft of fishes, Luk_5:1-11, so also does this evening appearance with the walking of our Lord at night upon the water of the sea, Joh_6:15-21. There also He finds His disciples terrified, but rejoices and composes them by lovingly assuring them of His nearness, and stills with a single word the storm which had risen in their heart. Just such appearances as this could afterwards give His witnesses the right to utter themselves in so decided a tone as Peter, e.g., Act_10:40-42.

4. Christian Anthropology has to thank this appearance of the Lord for declarations which confirm the specific distinction between spirit and body, define the conception of spirit, and raise above all doubt not only the objective, but also the subjective, identity of the man before and after his death.

5. In the Lord we behold the image of that perfection prepared beyond the grave for all His people, a peace subject to no disturbance, a glorified body that no longer checks the spirit, but serves it; a clear, yet no longer painful, recollection of the previous life, with its now accomplished conflict; a blessed fellowship and reunion with all who are here connected with us by bonds of the Spirit; an unimpeded continuation, for the glory of God, of the activity interrupted by death. This, and yet far more, which no eye hath seen and no ear hath heard, will the life of the Resurrection be for the subject and for the King of the Divine kingdom.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

And at evening time it shall be light, Zec_14:7.—The King of peace in the midst of unquiet subjects.—The Easter feast a feast of Peace.—How faith on the Risen One bestows peace: 1. In the doubting understanding; 2. in the disquiet of conscience; 3. in the sorrows of life; 4. in the fear of the future; 5. in the view of death.—Unbelief embitters to itself even the most exquisite hours of life.—How the Lord gradually lifts His people to the participation of His peace.—“It is I Myself:” 1. The Lord feels that He is the same; 2. He shows that He is the same; 3. He will as the same be recognized and honored by His own.—When the disciple of the Lord is doubtful, the Risen One still shows him His hands and His feet, nailed through for His everlasting salvation.—Not all unbelief is equally guilty.—“When I was yet with you,” the looking back out of the future into the present life.—The prophetic Scripture the best key: 1. To the enigma of the manifestation of Christ; 2. to the enigma of the life of the Christian.—As a whole will the Scripture be regarded and esteemed.—Not to isolate, but to combine, the way to the knowledge of the truth.—Our Lord: 1. Kindles the light for the eye; 2. opens the eye to the light.

Heubner:—Jesus Himself seeks out His disciples to strengthen them.—In reference to the realm of spirits, unbelief, superstition, and faith are to be carefully distinguished.—The Christian should be unterrified even amid the presentiments of a higher world.—The Lord will hereafter be yet recognizable even as Man.—The marks of Jesus’ wounds are fearful to His enemies, precious to His friends.—The difficulty of faith in Christ exalts its value and its power.—Christ’s love is not altered by His exaltation.—He received from them bodily food, and they receive spiritual food.—The Resurrection of Christ impresses on His words the seal of truth.—The understanding of Scripture is indispensable to religion.

On the Pericope.—Heubner:—The first evening which the Risen One spent in the midst of His disciples.—The blessed consequences of the Resurrection of Jesus to His disciples.—The certainty of the testimony of the disciples for the Resurrection of Jesus.—Arndt:—The Easter evening, what did it bring to the apostles? what did it bring to us all? 1. Full certainty; 2. deep peace; 3. apostolic power.—Palmer:—Our Lord’s: 1. Greeting; 2. commission; 3. promise (Joh_20:19-23).—Dietz:—What is the way in which one arrives at Easter peace?—Albrecht:—What the glorious gift of Christ has brought us with His Resurrection: 1. Peace before us; 2. within us; 3. among us; 4. around us.—Kraus-sold:—Where do we find the peace of God which the world cannot give?—Ahlfeld:—What the Lord has brought to His people from the grave: 1. Himself; 2. His peace; 3. the last seal of His Resurrection (comp. Joh_20:22).—Couard:—The blessed activity of the Risen One in the circle of His disciples.—Bobe:—Whereby do we attain to a blessed faith?—See further on Joh_20:19-23.

C. Over the Opposition of Israel and the Heathen World. (Intimated Luk_24:46-48)

⁴⁶ And [He] said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to [written that the Christ should suffer and should] rise from the dead the thirdday: ⁴⁷And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among⁴⁸[or, for] all nations, beginning at [from] Jerusalem. And [om., And] ye are witnesses of these things,

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk_24:46. And He said unto them.—In the organic articulation of this last chapter of Luke there is found a noteworthy climax. After he, in the narrative of the first Easter Message, has pointed us to the victory which the Risen One had accomplished over the might of sin and death, he has in a triad of appearances delineated the triumph which He celebrated over the doubt and unbelief of His first disciples. But the nearer the Lord comes to the final goal of His earthly manifestation, so much the more strongly does it come into view that the conquering Lion of the tribe of Judah is continually pressing forward ad altiora. It is true, His words only testify by intimations as to the victorious hope with which He casts a parting look upon the whole Jewish and heathen world before He bids His disciples the last farewell. Here also He begins with the mention of the word, in order then with a promise of the Spirit to conclude His meeting with His own and His instructions to them.

Thus it is written.—Yet once again a ãÝãñáðôáé , as at the beginning of His first life. We might assume (Meyer) that ὅôé was meant to indicate the cause why He had opened their understanding (Luk_24:45), if here the thread joining the different elements were not so slack that it perhaps appears better not to undertake the stating of any connection. The mention of the Resurrection on the third day is perhaps an indirect proof that at least these words of our Lord were not uttered on the day of His Resurrection. Here also, as to the rest, as in Luk_24:26, and throughout the Apostolic writings, suffering and glory are inseparably joined together.

Luk_24:47. And that … should be preached, êçñõ÷èῆíáé also depends upon ãÝãñáðôé and sets forth to us the preaching of the Gospel among the Gentiles and Jews, as the fruit of the Divine predetermination and of the fulfilment of the prophecies. According to Matthew and Mark also, the Lord, upon His departure from the earth, gives a commission for a general preaching of the Gospel, but in Luke again it bears a peculiar character. It is, first of all, a êÞñõãìá ἐð ̓ ὀíüìáôé Ἰçó ., that is, a preaching which takes place on the basis of this name, and therefore borrows the significance and authority from Him in whose name and in whose commission it takes place. Withal it must proceed from Jerusalem, and from there spread itself over all the nations. Comp. Act_1:8. A proof of our Lord’s great love of sinners on the one hand, and of the world-vanquishing destiny of the Gospel on the other hand, and which in the broad Pauline Gospel of Luke stands surely in its just place. Finally, while elsewhere there is only mention of the Gospel in general, here in particular ìåôÜíïéá and ἅöåóéò ôῶí ἁìáñô . are spoken of. Even as was the case with John the Baptist, and afterwards with the apostles, see Act_2:38; Act_3:19; Act_26:18.

Luk_24:48. Witnesses of these things.—Meyer, who here perhaps binds himself almost too strictly to the letter, insists on referring this ôïýôùí not only to our Lord’s death and Resurrection, but also to the just-mentioned commission for the proclamation of the Gospel. But precisely because they were to carry out this latter they could not at the same time be witnesses thereof, and, strictly speaking, the Ascension of the Lord, which at this moment had not yet taken place, would have had then to remain excluded from their testimony. Nowhere are the apostles represented as witnesses of that which they themselves accomplished, but everywhere as witnesses of that which the Lord had done. Therefore, we think it is better to refer ôïýôùí to all the here-named facts of the life of the Lord, which was concluded by His departure to the Father, the great centre of which was, however, the Resurrection, comp. Act_1:8; Act_1:22.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The preaching of the Gospel proceeding from Jerusalem directed to all nations, the fulfilment of the prophetic word, Psa_110:2; Isa_2:2-4; Mic_4:2-4.

2. The preaching of Repentance and Forgiveness most intimately connected together. The ìåôÜíïéá is an alteration of the inward disposition, which precedes ðßóôéò , upon which latter the ἅöåóéò ôῶí ἁìáñô . follows. The faith, however, in this latter, which is granted and received freely, must of itself lead to ἁãéáóìüò , the continuation of ìåôÜíïéá .

3. Christian missions here appear before our eyes as an institution of the Lord Himself, and as a holy vocation of the church. The apostles have not to remain at Jerusalem until the last Jew shall receive their testimony, but, on the other hand, after having there made the beginning, they must then as soon as possible extend as widely as possible the circle of their activity, and found the kingdom of God by means of their testimony. All which in the activity of supposed or real successors to the apostolic commission does not coincide with the actual witnessing function is here indirectly, but plainly enough excluded. Precisely, then, when the messengers of the Gospel are nothing more and nothing less than witnesses, do they walk in the footsteps of Him who Himself has been The Faithful Witness upon earth, Joh_20:22; 1Ti_6:13; Rev_1:5.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The institution of the preaching of the Gospel the last and noblest command of our Lord.—The command to begin the preaching of the Gospel at Jerusalem: 1. Surprising to the enemies; 2. beneficent for the friends of the Lord; 3. honorable for Himself.—This command a proof of: 1. The historical truth; 2. the heavenly origin; 3. the blessed goal of the Gospel.—As the Gospel proceeded from Jerusalem so will it return to Jerusalem.—Even yet the inner renewal must begin nowhere else than from the sinful Jerusalem in the heart.—The Commission for the preaching of the Gospel: 1. What must be preached? 2. in what name? 3. from whence? 4. how far abroad?—What the world owes to the last commandment of the Lord.—The preaching of the Lord a testimony: 1. Of Whom? 2. through Whom? 3. for Whom?

Starke:—Christ directs His disciples to the Scripture not less than His enemies.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Repentance, forgiveness, &c., the blessed fruits of Christ’s Resurrection.—Without repentance no forgiveness.—Osiander:—The apostles’ writings concerning Jesus are a genuine testimony, for they have testified to what they saw and heard, and, moreover, have received from heaven. Who, then, would not believe them?—Heubner:—The main substance of the Christian preaching is Repentance, and Forgiveness of sins.—The Risen One is Lord of the earth.—Whoever gainsays the apostles gainsays Jesus.

Footnotes:

Luk_24:36.—The ̔ Éçóïῦò of the ‘Recepta, accepted even by Scholz, is omitted by some authorities, by others placed aftor å ͂ óôç . An explicative addition, occasioned by the beginning of a lesson.

Luk_24:36.—There is no ground for regarding this Easter greeting of the Lord, with Tischendorf, as not genuine. What Lachmann, however, has bracketed, ἐãþ åἰìé , ìὴ öïâåῖóèå , a reading of G., P., &c, appears to have been taken from Joh_6:20.

Luk_24:38.—̓ Åí ôῆ êáñäßá . Internally more probable reading of Lachmann and Tischendorf, [Meyer, Tregelles, Alford,) after B., D., Itala. [Cod. Sin. agrees with the Recepta.—C. C. S.]

Luk_24:40.—Tischendorf omits this verse, on the authority of D. and some Versions. Tregelles brackets it. Meyer suspects it of being, as well as ê . ë . á . Åἰñ . ὑì . in Luk_24:36, an interpolation from Joh_20:19-20. Alford retains it, remarking with force, that if it were interpolated from John we should certainly have in some MSS. ðëåõñáí instead of ðïäáò , either here only or in Luk_24:39 also.—C. C. S.]

Luk_24:44.— Ïἰ ëüãïé ìïõ . Tischendorf, according to A., D., K., L., U., [X.,] 33, Coptic, Cant., &c.

Luk_24:46.—According to the reading of Tischendorf, ïὓôùò ãÝãñáðôáé ðáèåῖí , ê . ô . ë ., [Meyer, Tregelles, Alford. Lachmann brackets the suspected words.—C. C. S.] The addition of the Recepta: êáὶ ïὕôùò ἕäåé , appears to have been interpolated for the sake of perspicuity, and is wanting in B., C.¹, D., [Cod. Sin.,] L., Coptic, Æthiopian, Itala, &c.