Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Luke 1:17 - 1:17
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
17. αὐτὸς προελεύσεται ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ. He shall himself go before the Messiah. The αὐτοῦ is used in its most emphatic sense for Christ as in 1Jn 2:12; 2Pe 3:4. The English version should have added, “in His presence” (ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ).
ἐν πνεύματι καὶ δυνάμει Ἡλία. From the last words of Malachi (Luk 4:4-6, Luk 3:1), the Jews universally believed (as they do to this day) that Elijah would visibly return to earth as a herald of the Messiah. It required the explanation of our Lord to open the eyes of the Apostles on this subject. “This is Elias which was for to come,” Mat 11:14. “Elias truly shall first come and restore all things … Then the disciples understood that He spake unto them of John the Baptist,” Mat 17:10-14. The resemblance was partly in external aspect (2Ki 1:8; Mat 3:4); and partly in his mission of stern rebuke and invitation to repentance (1Ki 18:21; 1Ki 21:20).
ἐπιστρέψαι. The infinitive, expressive of a fact or consequence, almost resembling a purpose as in ἤλθομεν προσκυνῆσαι Mat 2:2, where the supine would be used in Latin. Comp. ἤμισυ τοῦ στρατεύματος κατέλιπε φυλάττειν τὸ στρατόπεδον.
καρδίας πατέρων ἐπὶ τέκνα. ‘Of fathers to children;’ i.e. (as in the original meaning of Malachi,) to remedy disunion and restore family life. Kuinoel and others strangely follow St Augustine (De Civ. Dei, xx. 29) in explaining this to mean that John should make the Jews as pious as the Patriarchs were.
ἐν φρονήσει. (To walk) in or by wisdom. Φρόνησις (Eph 1:8) is the practical wisdom shewn by obedience. He shall turn them to wisdom so that they shall live in it. This is a constructio praegnans where a preposition of rest is placed after a verb of motion to imply the state produced. This ‘pregnant construction’ is one of the many signs of the agility of the Greek intellect. Compare
“Clarence, whom I indeed have cast in darkness.”
K. Rich. III. I. 3.
“And let the sounds of music | Creep in our ears.”
Merch. of Ven. Luk 1:1.
And in Latin In amicitia receptus, Sall. In aquam macerare, Cat. Brief Greek Syntax, § 89.
δικαίων. See Luk 1:6. The disobedient shall by his ministry begin to accept the δικαιώματα.
ἑτοιμάσαι … κατεσκευασμένον. The participle is proleptic—‘To prepare so that it may be ready.’ See Brief Greek Syntax, p. 82. (Comp. submersas obrues puppes, &c.) The reason why the R. V[29] renders this “to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for Him” is because St Luke is fond of placing a word like ‘for the Lord’ between two others, with either or both of which it may be connected. See Act 1:2 (Humphry, Rev. Version, p. 92).
[29] R. V. Revised Version.