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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Luke 14:20 - 14:20
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20. οὐ δύναμαι ἐλθεῖν. The ‘I cannot,’ as in Luk 11:7, is only an euphemism for ‘I will not.’ He thinks his excuse so valid that there can be no question about it. He relies doubtless on the principle of the exemption from war, granted to newly-married bridegrooms in Deu 24:5. Compare Hdt. i. 36 where Croesus declines to let his son go on a hunt νεόγαμός τε γάρ ἐστι καὶ ταῦτά οἱ νῦν μέλει. Perhaps St Paul is alluding to this parable in 1Co 7:29-33, “The time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; … and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not using it to the full.” Thus the three hindrances are possessions, wealth, pleasures. But, as Bengel says, neither the field (Mat 13:44), nor the plowing (Luk 9:62), nor the wedding (2Co 11:2) need have been any real hindrance. The ‘sacred hate’ of Luk 14:26 would have cured all these excuses.