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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Luke 5:35 - 5:35
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35. ἐλεύσονται δὲ ἡμέραι. ‘But there will come days.’
καὶ ὅταν ἀπαρθῆ ἀπ' αὐτῶν ὁ νυμφίος. ‘And when’ (καὶ ABD). Comp. Joh 16:16, “A little while and ye shall not see me.” The verb used—ἀπαρθῇ—occurs nowhere else in the N. T., though we have ἐξαρθῇ (1Co 5:2). It clearly points to a violent end. This is memorable as being the earliest recorded public intimation of His crucifixion, of which a dim hint (“even so shall the Son of man be lifted up”) had been given privately to Nicodemus (Joh 3:14).
τότε νηστεύσουσιν. As we are told that they did, Act 13:2-3. Observe that it is not said, ‘then shall ye be able to insist on their fasting.’ The Christian fasts would be voluntary, not compulsory; the result of a felt need, not the observance of a rigid command. Our Lord never entered fully into the subject of fasting, and it is clear that throughout the Bible it is never enjoined as a frequent duty, though it is sanctioned and encouraged as an occasional means of grace. In the Law only one day in the year—the Kippur, or Day of Atonement—was appointed as a fast (Lev 16:29; Num 29:7). After the exile four annual fasts had arisen, but the prophets do not enjoin them (Zec 7:1-12; Zec 8:19), nor did our Lord in any way approve (or apparently practise) the two weekly fasts of the Pharisees (Luk 18:12). Probably the reason why fasting has never been commanded as a universal and constant duty is that it produces very different effects on different temperaments, and according to the testimony of some who have tried it most seriously, acts in some cases as a powerful stimulus to temptation. It is remarkable that the words “and fasting” are probably the interpolations of an ascetic bias in Mat 17:21; Mar 9:29; Act 10:30; 1Co 7:5, though fasting is implied in Mat 6:16. Fasting is not commanded and is not forbidden. The Christian is free (Rom 14:5), but must, while temperate in all things, do exactly that which he finds most conducive to his spiritual and moral welfare. For now the bridegroom is not taken from us but is with us (Mat 28:20; Heb 13:5-6; Joh 14:16; Joh 16:7).