Lange Commentary - Luke 8:40 - 8:56

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Lange Commentary - Luke 8:40 - 8:56


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

c. The Raising Of Jairus’ Daughter (Luk_8:40-56)

(Parallels: Mat_9:18-26; Mar_5:21-43. Gospel for the 24th Sunday after Trinity.)

40And it came to pass, that, when Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him: for they were all waiting for him. 41And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler [the president] of the synagogue; and he fell down at Jesus’ feet, and besought him that he would come into his house: 42For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But [And it came to pass, V. O] as he went the people thronged him. 43And a woman having [who had had] an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon [for] physicians, 44neither could be healed of [by] any, Came [Approached] behind him, and touched the border [fringe, Num_15:38] of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. 45And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 46And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out [perceived virtue to have gone out] of me. 47And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. 48And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort [om., be of good comfort, V. O.]: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace. 49While he yet spake [is yet speaking], there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. 50But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole [lit., saved]. 51And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in [with him], save Peter, and James, and John [John and James, V. O.], and the father and the mother of the maiden. 52And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; [for, V. O.] she is not dead, but sleepeth. 53And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. 54And he put them all out [omit this clause, V. O.], and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. 55And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat [something to eat]. 56And her parents were astonished: but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Harmony.—According to Mark and Luke, the raising of Jairus’ daughter follows immediately after the return of Jesus from the land of the Gadarenes. According to Matthew, on the other hand, this raising immediately preceded the healing of the paralytic and the calling of Matthew to the apostleship. It appears to us that the former arrangement deserves the preference (similarly Wieseler, a. o.). The words of Matthew, Luk_8:18, ôáῦôá áὐôïῦ ëáëïῦíôïò áὐôïῖò , seem occasionally to be rather a standing formula to adapt one narrative to another, than a diplomatically exact indication of the actual state of the case. Mat_8:9; Mat_8:9. bear rather a chrestomathic than a strictly chronological character, while the arrangement in Mark and Luke is much more natural and simple. The opposite view is represented by Olshausen, Lange, Stier. We believe that one must lose himself in a sea of insurmountable difficulties, if he makes Mat_9:18-26 follow immediately upon Luk_8:1-17.

Luk_8:40. The people gladly received Him.—According to the concurrent accounts of Mark and Luke, the people wait upon the shore for the Saviour while He was returning from the land of the Gadarenes. It appears as if the throngs that had streamed together, also interested themselves for the fate of Jairus. Respecting his office as president of the synagogue, see Lange on Mat_9:18.

Luk_8:41. And he fell down at Jesus’ feet.—A revelation of the life of faith in the president of a synagogue certainly not too friendly to Jesus, of no mean significance. By distress he also was impelled to Jesus, although it could not previously be observed that the healing in the synagogue at Capernaum (Luk_4:31-44), the miracle upon the paralytic (Luk_5:12-26), or that on the servant of the centurion at Capernaum (Luk_7:1-10) had made upon this ruler a decisive impression. But now when he is himself in need he without doubt calls to mind all this, and derives therefrom boldness to come with his own sorrow to Jesus.

Luk_8:42. One only daughter, about twelve years of age.—The statement of the age Luke alone has; it interested him doubtless as physician also. That the woman with an issue of blood had also been ailing twelve years is a coincidence such as real life affords thousands of. An inventor would without doubt have taken care that these two numbers should not have agreed with one another.

She lay a dying.— ἈðÝèíçóêåí , imperfect, not “obierat, absente mortuamque ignorante patre” (Fritzsche). According to Matt. ἄñôé ἐôåëåýôçóåí . From Luk_8:49 it appears, however, that Jairus at this moment did not yet regard her as dead. The different accounts admit of easy combination, if we only consider the excited state of the speaker, who certainly did not weigh his words in a gold-balance. “He left her as one who was dying, and might therefore express himself waveringly.” Lange. As to the rest, the prayer of Jairus shows a singular mixture of faith and weakness of faith; he stands below the heathen centurion and almost on a level with the âáóéëéêüò , Joh_4:46-54. He desires not only healing, but stipulates moreover expressly that the Saviour must, above all, Himself come and lay His hands on his little daughter. He conceives the miracle only under one, and that the most ordinary, form, instead of entreating, “Speak in a word.” But just this brings him also into perplexity, since the Saviour allows Himself to be detained on the way.

As He went.—The Saviour therefore does not allow Himself to be kept back by the exceedingly imperfect form of Jairus’ faith, since He is persuaded of its sincerity. Comp. Mat_12:20.

Ἰáôñïῖò , “for physicians.” With his psychological tact Luke brings into relief how much the wearisome suffering of this woman had been aggravated by the fact that with all her suffering she had in addition made so many fruitless essays to be relieved ( ðñïóáíáëþóáóá ). Mark expresses himself less favorably for the faculty: “ ðïëëὰ ðáèïῦóá ὑðὸ ðïëëῶí ἰáôñῶí êáὶ ìçäὲí ὠöåëçèåῖóá , ἀëëὰ ìᾶëëïí åἰòôὸ ÷åῖñïí ἐëèïῦóá .”

Luk_8:44. The fringe of His garment.—The êñÜóðåäïí , öִéöִú , comp. Num_15:38, and Winer, Realwörterbuch, Art. Saum.

Luk_8:45. Peter and they that were with him.—Peculiar to Luke, since Mark only speaks of the disciples in general. Entirely in agreement with the precipitate character of Peter, who thinks merely of an accidental, and not in the least of a believing, touch.

Luk_8:46. Somebody hath touched Me.—“Hoc absurdum videtur, quod gratiam suam effuderit Christus nesciens, cui benefaceret. Certe minime dubium est, quin sciens ac volens mulierem sanaverit, sed eam requirit, ut sponte in medium prodeat. Si testis miraculi sui fuisset Christus, forte non fuisset ejus verbis creditum, nunc vero, quum mulier, metu perculsa, quod sibi accidit, narrat, plus ponderis habet ejus confessio.” Calvin.

I perceived virtue to have gone out of Me.—It is and remains a difficult question how we are to conceive this going forth of virtue. Certainly not in any such way as if His healing power resembled an electric battery, which was obliged to discharge itself involuntarily at the least touch. There proceeds nothing from Him unless He will, but He has ever the will to help when and so soon as He only meets with believing confidence. It is therefore not unconsciously, but with full consciousness, that He permits healing power to stream forth when the hand of faith lays hold upon Him. The people press Him on all sides, but experience nothing of the ever-ready healing power, even though one or another might have had a concealed disease, simply because this confidence is lacking in them. And that this virtue proceeds from the Lord need occasion as little perplexity as that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, Joh_15:26. Of this going forth of His miraculous power now, the Saviour has no sensuous feeling, but an intellectual knowledge; He knows it within Himself ( ἔãíùí ). Into what definite individual the virtue had passed the Saviour did not know directly. The miraculous knowledge of the Godman was no magical clairvoyance, and His question, “Who is the one (Masc. ὁ , not ἡ ) who has touched me?” was by no means a mere feigning. He looks around that the concealed believer might come forward, for this He knows, that without faith the beneficent power would in no case have been elicited from Him. In the spirit He has already heard the cry of distress of a suffering and trusting soul. That His garment was the cause of the healing, the mechanical conductor of the healing power, of this the Evangelist says nothing; but by the touch of His garment faith might be as well tested as by the grasping of His mighty hand. Designedly, therefore, does He cause the woman to come forward from obscurity to the full light, that she may be brought back from the fancy of a magical, to the apprehension of a freely intended working of the Saviour. Not Jesus’ garment, but her own faith, has saved her, even though this faith in the beginning was by no means wholly free from superstition.

Luk_8:47. And how she was healed immediately.—According to tradition, Eusebius, H. E. vii. 18; Sozomenus v. 21, the woman erected at Paneas, her birthplace, a memorial of this benefit, which the Emperor Julian is said afterwards to have removed and to have erected his own statue in the place of it. Elsewhere, as in the Gospel of Nicodemus, Luke 7, and in Thilo i. 561, this woman appears under the name of Veronica, who, in the presence of Pilate, proclaimed Jesus’ innocence in loud voice, and on the way to Golgotha wiped His face with the handkerchief that is still preserved. Without being obliged to criticise the genuineness and value of these accounts, they may, however, serve as proofs how, even in Christian antiquity, the faith and the hope of this sufferer were esteemed. Compare, moreover, the similar miracles Mat_14:36; Act_5:15; Act_19:11. In Sepp, Leben Jesu, ii. § 399, we find important particulars in reference to the manner of healing the ῥýóéò áἵìáôïò by Jewish physicians. The completeness of the miraculous healing is admirably expressed by Luke the physician in the ðáñá÷ñῆìá ἔóôç ἡῥýóéò ô . áἵì .

Luk_8:49. While He is yet speaking.—By the use of the present in the narrative the vividness and dramatic power of Luke’s representation is not a little heightened. It appears, moreover, from this message, that Jairus had come forth with the knowledge and approbation of his family to call the Master. Perhaps, however, this resolution had produced a reaction with some; at least these messengers, probably sent by the distressed mother to the sorrowing father, show now plainly enough that they expect no further benefit from the Teacher.

Luk_8:50. Fear not.—The whole delay with the woman had been for Jairus a trial of fire. His just awakened faith had been most intensely shaken; but now, when about to succumb, he is strengthened by the Saviour.— Êáὶ óùèÞóåôáé . Still more accurately, as it appears, this word is omitted by Mark, although, of course, the event showed that this indirect promise had been comprehended in the “Only believe.” In that the Saviour at such an instant forbids all fear and demands only faith, He causes Jairus already to expect something great, but does not as yet tell him definitely what.

Luk_8:51. He suffered no man to go in.—As the Saviour did not bring with Him all His disciples, it appears to have been His intention to keep the miracle as much as possible concealed. That He causes Himself to be accompanied by the three disciples, who also upon Tabor, and in Gethsemane, entered into the innermost sanctuary, is a proof of the high significance which He Himself attributes to this raising of the dead.

Luk_8:52. And all wept and bewailed her.—Comp. Mat_9:23 and De Wette, Archæology, § 263, who makes mention of this expression, among others, from the Talmud: “Etiam pauperrimus inter’ Israelites, uxore mortua, prœbebit ei non minus quam duos tibias et unam lamentatricem.” We can easily imagine how great a din, in the house of an Israelite of distinction, after the loss of his only daughter, there must have been.

She is not dead.—Against the explanation of it as a swoon, Lange justly declares: Matt. ad loc. It is true, Von Ammon concludes, from the small number of witnesses that Jesus takes with Him, that the awakening maiden above all things had need of rest and quiet, and therefore was not really dead; but just as well might he, from the command given to the bearers at Nain to stand still, have been able to conclude that the motion of the bier might hive been injurious to the only seemingly dead man. The explanation of Olshausen and others is in conflict with the ethical character of the Lord, who was never wont to surround His deeds with an illusory glitter, with the consciousness of the parents and Family, Luk_8:53, and with the express account of Luke: “her spirit returned,” Luk_8:55, comp. 1Ki_17:22. It is not to be doubted, moreover, that the figurative speech taken from sleep serves still more to veil the miracle. A vaunter would have said of one apparently dead: “She sleeps not, but she is dead.” The Prince of life says of one dead, “She is not dead, but sleepeth.” In the eyes of the Saviour she was at this moment already living, although she as yet lay there fettered corporeally by the power of death.

Luk_8:55. To give her something to eat.—Here also there appears in the miracle of the Saviour a trait of benevolence and provident care which forgets nothing, for which nothing is too trivial. Thus does He elsewhere take care that the crumbs should be gathered; that Lazarus should be freed from the grave-clothes,—at once a proof of the truth of the account, and of the completeness of the miracle.

Luk_8:56. That they should tell no man.—The opinion that the command to keep silence is here interpolated in the wrong place, and was given, not at this miracle, but at a former one (Hase), is destitute of all proof. The command, on the other hand, is occasioned by the intense expectation of the people at the time, who might easily have given themselves up to insurrectionary commotions. Besides, it was a training school for Jairus and his family, who, after they had now beheld the miraculous power of the Saviour, had to be guided to further faith and obedience. And as respects the little daughter, awakened by Jesus to new life, who does not feel how injuriously the continual questions and expressions of astonishment and curiosity would have worked upon the higher and inward life in her case.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. It is important to note the different forms in which faith reveals itself in Jairus and in the woman with the issue of blood. The former comes courageously forward, but is secretly anxious, and appears stronger than he really is. The other approaches timorously, but is secretly strong in faith, and is really far more than she appeared. Both types have in the Christian world many spiritually related to them.

2. This double narrative of miracle bears in almost every trait the stamp of truth, simplicity, and quiet sublimity. This anxiety of the father and this timidity of the woman; this restlessness of the people and this composure of the Saviour; this surprise of the disciples and His own decisively repeated “Some one hath touched me!” this laugh of unbelief over against the outbreak of sorrow; this majesty in revealing, and this care in concealing, His miraculous power; all this forms a so inimitable whole that one may grasp the truth almost with his hands. Matthew, according to his custom, relates concisely and objectively; with Mark the influence of the eye-witness Peter is unmistakable; the particulars of Luke reveal the physician, and his statement of the age of the child is in some measure supported by Mark, inasmuch as the latter says that she walked. All the accounts admit of combination in a most unforced manner, and if any one could take them merely for artfully interwoven threads of a pious invention, we should with reason have to doubt not only his religious sense, but also his natural sense of beauty and truth.

3. A striking similarity appears between the raising of Jairus’ daughter and that of Lazarus. Both times does the Lord delay before He brings the help, and permits the sick one to whom He is called, to die. Both times He gives a mysterious promise of deliverance. Both times finally does He declare the death a sleep. Here also the Synoptic agrees with the Johannean Christ. [It may be questioned whether in either case the death had not occurred when the message of entreaty reached Him. It seems, at least, hard to believe that the Saviour would have permitted any mortal to pass through the agonies of death, merely for the purpose of displaying His miraculous power more fully. On either interpretation, however, the similarity between the present miracle and the raising of Lazarus remains.—C. C. S.]

4. “The journey to this miracle is a remarkable type of many an inward leading. When Jesus has already arrived with the man almost at the goal of his conversion and perfection, just then comes often the hardest shock; by which even what of faith has been gained, appears to fall again completely in ruins. Yet it is only meant to serve for the complete overcoming of all misgiving in the man, for the perfecting of faith and for the glory of the divine Benefactor.” Von Gerlach. Comp. moreover the remarks on the raising of the young man of Nain, Luk_7:11-17.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

When Jesus has been missed for a time, He is received with the greater joy.—How life’s distress drives to Jesus.—Jesus the best refuge for the troubled parent’s heart.—No youth or strength secures from death.—Jesus looks not mainly at the completeness, but at the sincerity of the faith that calls upon Him.—Jesus the Physician of our hidden infirmities.—The hopeless essays to heal one’s self.—The world a physician under whom the sick man grows continually worse and worse.—The bold grasp of faith: 1. What it ventures; 2. what it wins.—How many surround Jesus outwardly, but how few touch Him believingly!—Hidden faith must finally come to light: 1. For the glory of the Lord; 2. for its own attestation; 3. for the encouragement and for the comfort of others.—The tranquillity of the Saviour in opposition: 1. To the thronging of the people; 2. to the contradiction of the disciples; 3. to the perplexity of the woman; 4. to the anxiety of Jairus.—The faith of the woman with the issue of blood: 1. Secretly nourished; 2. courageously shown; 3. immediately discovered; 4. humbly acknowledged; 5. nobly clowned.—Even the hidden benefits of the Lord come at their time to light.—“Fear not, only believe!” 1. An astounding, 2. a legitimate, 3. a possible, 4. a most salutary requirement.—Jesus the best guide on the way of faith. (Jairus.) We see, 1. Supplicating faith heard by Jesus; 2. eager faith tried by Jesus; 3. sinking faith strengthened by Jesus; 4. steadfast faith crowned by Jesus; 5. thankful faith perfected by Jesus.—The way of the Saviour between mourners on the one hand, and laughers on the other.—A hopeless sadness, once for all, proscribed by Jesus when He called death a sleep.—Sleep the image of death; both are, 1. Preceded by weariness; 2. accompanied by a rest; 3. followed by a wakening.—The raising of the spiritually dead also is performed by the Saviour for the most part in holy stillness.—Unbelief which will be wiser than Jesus, is ever put to shame.—The spiritually awakened also need, and at once, nourishment.—Self-denial the best proof of the gratitude of faith.—Even in reference to the Saviour’s deeds, there is time for silence as well as for speech.

Starke:—If Jesus with His Gospel is repulsed in one place, He is bidden welcome in another.—God often permits men to wait a while before He comes, that they may be the more eager and the more fitted to receive Him.—Brentius:—Great the man, great the cross.—In coming to the help of sufferers, there should not be long delay.—The miracles that in our day are said to be wrought by touching the bones of saints, are mere cheatery.—God heals also our secret infirmities, of which we are ashamed.—Cramer:—Christ is a Searcher of hearts, and one can undertake nothing so secret that He does not see it.—Osiander:—God lets His children sometimes be put to shame, that He may afterwards honor them the more.—The Saviour knows how to speak a word in season to the weary.—Christ Lord of both dead and living.—Rom_14:9.—Learn thou to accommodate thyself to the horas and moras of our God.—J. Hall:—It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting.—Christ and His own are by the unbelieving world continually laughed to scorn.—The scoffing of the world must not keep the Christian back from good works.

Heubner:—When a spiritual father calls on Jesus for a soul entrusted to Him, he may hope of Jesus not to entreat in vain.—The folly of men appeared of old also as now, partly even in excessive funeral pomp.—The trust which Jesus knew how to inspire in Himself.—Lisco:—How faith is assaulted and strengthened.—The mighty help of the Lord Jesus.—Palmer (The Pericope):—As there, the Saviour’s eye sees ever in secret; as there, the Saviour’s hand helps ever in secret.—The Lord’s dealings with a believer here amid the tumult of the world, yonder in the eternal Sabbath-stillness.—Fuchs:—The example of the two sufferers in the Gospel teaches us, what Paul says, Rom_5:3 : 1. Tribulation worketh patience; 2. patience worketh experience; 3. experience worketh hope; 4. hope maketh not ashamed.—Souchon:—The Lord’s leadings for our salvation.—Couard:—We have a God that helps, a Lord God that delivers from death.

Footnotes:

Luk_8:42.— Êáὶ ἐãÝíåôï ἐí ôῷ ðïñåýåóèáé áὐôüí . Rec.: Ἐí äὲ ôῷ ὑðÜãåéí áὐôüí . [Former reading accepted by Tischendorf, Alford, Meyer, Lachmann with C.1, D., P. Cod. Sin. agrees with Recepta.—C. C. S.]

Luk_8:47.—Rec.: áὐôῷ , which, however, is to be expunged. [Om., Cod. Sin.]

Luk_8:48.—Rec.: èÜñóåé , which the Saviour undoubtedly said according to Mat_9:22, and perhaps also according to Mar_5:34, but certainly not according to the original text of Luke. See Meyer and Tischendorf ad loc. [Om., Tischendorf, Lachmann, Meyer, Tregelles, Alford with B., D., L., Î ., Cod. Sin.—C. C. S.]

Luk_8:49.—Rec.: ëÝãùí áὐôῷ . Not sufficiently attested. [Tischendorf, Alford, Lachmann retain áὐôῷ with A., C., D., E., 11 other uncials; om., B., Cod. Sin., X., Î .—C. C. S.]

Luk_8:51.—The words óὺí áὐôῷ have sufficient authority for themselves, to be received with a good conscience into the text, although they are wanting in the Recepta. [The Cod. Sin. agrees substantially with this, but has óõíåéóåëèåéí áõôù instead of åéóåëèåéí óõí áõôù .—C. C. S.]

Luk_8:51.—Rec.: James and John. From Mar_5:37. [Recepta supported by Cod. Sin., A., L., S., X., A.—C. C. S.]

Luk_8:52.—Rec. omits ãÜñ . The number of witnesses for ãÜñ in Luke is too great to allow us to regard it as merely a copulative borrowed from Mat_9:24. [Lachmann, Tregelles, Alford insert ãÜñ with Cod. Sin., B., C., D., L., X., Ä . Meyer and Tischendorf omit it with A., E., and 9 other uncials.—C. C. S.]

Luk_8:54.—Rec.: Áὐôὸò äὲ ἐêâáëὼí ἔîù ðÜíôáò . These words appear to have been with good reason expunged by Lachmann and Tischendorf, as Griesbach had already suspected them. B., D., [Cod. Sin.,] L., X., and other MSS. have them not, and it is much easier to explain how they have been interpolated from Matthew and Mark, than why they should have been omitted, if they had really stood in the original text of Luke. The variation in the arrangement of the words also (C.1 does not read ἔîù , and several MSS. and versions place it after ðÜíôáò ) appears to strengthen the probability of interpolation.