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Luk_1:16-17. Working of John as a preacher of repentance, who as a moral reformer of the people (comp. on Mat_17:11) prepares the way for the Messianic consummation of the theocracy.
ἐπιστρέψει ] for through sin they have turned themselves away from God.
κύριον τ . Θεὸν αὐτ .] not the Messiah (Euthymius Zigabenus, and many of the older commentators), but God.
καὶ αὐτός ] He will turn many to God, and he himself will, etc.
προελεύσεται ] not: he will emerge previously (de Wette), but: he will precede (Xen. Cyr. vi. 3, 9), go before Him (Gen_23:3; Gen_23:14; Jdt_2:19; Jdt_15:13).
ἐνώπ . αὐτοῦ ] can only, in accordance with the context, be referred to God (Luk_1:16), whose preceding herald he will be. The prophets, namely, look upon and depict the setting in of the Messianic kingdom as the entrance of Jehovah into the midst of His people, so that thereupon God Himself is represented by the Messiah; Isaiah 40.; Mal_3:1; Mal_4:5 f. Comp. Tit_2:13. In the person of the entering Messiah Jehovah Himself enters; but the Messiah’s own personal divine nature is not yet expressed in this ancient-prophetic view (in opposition to Gess, Pers. Chr. p. 47). Incorrect, because in opposition to this prophetic idea, is the immediate reference of αὐτοῦ to the Messiah (Heumann, Kuinoel, Valckenaer, Winer), as regards which appeal is made to the emphatic use of äåÌà , αὐτός , and ipse (comp. the Pythagorean αὐτὸς ἔφα ), whereby a subject not named but well known to every one is designated (Winer, p. 152 [E. T. 182 f.]).
ἐν πνεύματι κ . δυνάμ . Ἠλ .] furnished therewith. Spirit and power (power of working) of Elias (according to Mal_4:5 f.) is, as a matter of course, God’s Spirit (comp. Luk_1:15) and divine power, but in the peculiar character and vital expression which were formerly apparent in the case of Elias, whose antitype John is, not as a miracle-worker (Joh_10:41), but as preacher of repentance and prophetic preparer of the way of the Lord.
ἐπιστρέψαι κ . τ . λ .] according to Malachi, l.c.: in order to turn fathers’ hearts to children; to be taken literally of the restoration of the paternal love, which in the moral degradation of the people had in many grown cold. Comp. Sir_48:10 and Fritzsche in loc. Kuinoel incorrectly holds that πατέρων means the patriarchs, and that the meaning is (similar to that given by Augustine, de civit. D. xx. 29; Beza, Calovius, and others): “efficiet, ut posteri erga Deum eundem habeant animum pium, quem, habebant eorum majores.” Comp. also Hengstenberg, Christol. III. p. 674, and Bleek. The absence of any article ought in itself to have warned against this view!
καὶ ἀπειθεῖς ἐν φρον . τ . δικ .] sc. ἐπιστρέψαι . The discourse passes over from the special relation to the general one. ἀπειθεῖς is the opposite of τῶν δικαίων , and therefore is not to be understood of the children (Olshausen), but of the immoral in general, whose characteristic is disobedience, namely towards God.
ἐν φρονήσει ] connected immediately in a pregnant way with the verb of direction, in which the thought of the result was predominant. See Kühner, II. p. 316. “Sensus eorum, qui justi sunt, in conversione protinus induitur,” Bengel. φρόνησις (see Arist. Eth. Nic. vi. 5. 4), practical intelligence. Comp. on Eph_1:8. The practical element follows from ἀπειθεῖς .
ἑτοιμάσαι ] to put in readiness, etc. Aim of the ἐπιστρέψαι κ . τ . λ ., and so final aim of the προελεύσεται κ . τ . λ .
κυρίῳ ] for God, as at Luk_1:16-17.
λαὸν κατεσκευασμ .] a people adjusted, placed in the right moral state (for the setting up of the Messianic kingdom), is related to ἑτοιμάσαι as its result. “Parandus populus, ne Dominus populum imparatum inveniens majestate sua obterat,” Bengel.