Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Luke 1:22 - 1:22

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Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Luke 1:22 - 1:22


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

22. ἐξελθὼν δέ. The moment of the priest’s reappearance from before the ever-burning golden candlestick, and the veil which hid the Holiest Place, was one which powerfully affected the Jewish imagination. See Sir 50:5-21.

οὐκ ἐδύνατο λαλῆσαι αὐτοῖς. They were waiting in the Court to be dismissed with the usual blessing, which is said to have been generally pronounced by the other priest. Num 6:23-26. “Then he” (the High Priest Simon) “went down and lifted up his hands over the whole congregation of the children of Israel, to give the blessing of the Lord with his lips, and to rejoice in His name. And they bowed themselves down to worship the second time, that they might receive a blessing from the Most High.” Sir 50:20.

ὀπτασίαν. The classical term is ὄψιν. The word is used especially of the most vivid and ‘objective’ appearances, Luk 24:23; Act 26:19; 2Co 12:1; Dan 9:23.

αὐτὸς ἦν διανεύων αὐτοῖς. ‘He himself continued making signs to them.’

διέμενεν κωφός. The word κωφὸς means actual ‘dumbness.’ In Luk 1:20 the angel uses σιωπῶν, because, though Zachariah appeared to the people to be ‘dumb,’ his power of speech was only temporarily arrested. “Credat Judaeus ut loqui possit” (let the Jew believe that he may be able to speak) says St Augustine. Origen, Ambrose, and Isidore, see in the speechless priest vainly endeavouring to bless the people, a fine image of the Law reduced to silence before the first announcement of the Gospel. The scene might stand for an allegorical representation of the thesis so powerfully worked out in the Epistle to the Hebrews (see Heb 8:13). Zacharias became dumb, and Saul of Tarsus blind, for a time. “Praeludium legis ceremonialis finiendae Christo veniente.” Bengel.