Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Luke 7:12 - 7:12
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
12. ἤγγισεν τῇ πύλῃ. All ordinary Jewish funerals are extramural. Nain is approached by a narrow rocky path, and it must have been at this spot that the two processions met. They were perhaps going to bury the dead youth in one of the rock-hewn sepulchres which are still visible on the hill side. The rocky path is one of the few definite spots in Palestine on which we know that our Lord had stood.
καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐξεκομίζετο. For the use of καὶ compare Luk 2:21. The uses of καὶ in the Gospels are modified by Aramaic idioms. Ἐκκομίζειν is used for the classical ἐκφέρειν, efferre.
μονογενὴς υἱὸς τῇ μητρί. The dative is here expressive of more tender feeling than the ordinary genitive would have been. It is the dative of advantage, and expresses the preciousness of the son to the mother. Comp. μονογενὴς τῷ πατρί, Tob 3:15. See Winer, p. 264. It is found also in classic Greek—μονογενὲς τέκνον πατρί, Aesch. Ag. 872. ἐόντα οἱ μουνογενέα, Hdt. VII. 221. See on Luk 8:42, Luk 9:38.
ὄχλος τῆς πόλεως ἱκανός. Compare the public sympathy for the family of Bethany (Joh 11:19); and on the bitterness of mourning for an only child, see Jer 6:26; Zec 12:10; Amo 8:10.