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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Luke 9:50 - 9:50
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
50. μὴ κωλύετε. The present-imperfect tense, ‘Do not be for hindering him.’
ὃς γὰρ οὐκ ἔστιν καθ' ὑμῶν, ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν ἐστίν. Cf. Php 1:18. The complementary but not contradictory truth to this is, “He who is not with me is against me,” Mat 12:30. Both are true in different circumstances. Neutrality is sometimes as deadly as opposition (Jdg 5:23); it is sometimes as effectual as aid (Sueton. Jul. Caes. 75). See Vinet, La tolérance et l’intolérance de l’Evangile (Discours, p. 268). Renan calls these “two irreconcilable rules of proselytism, and a contradiction evoked by a passionate struggle.” Guizot expresses his astonishment at so frivolous a criticism, and calls them two contrasted facts which everyone must have noticed in the course of an active life. “Les deux assertions, loin de se contredire, peuvent être également vraies, et Jésus-Christ en les exprimant a parlé en observateur sagace, non en moraliste qui donne les préceptes.” Méditations, p. 229.
It is a great pity that the chapter does not end at this verse; since it closes another great section in our Lord’s ministry—the epoch of opposition and flight. A new phase of the ministry begins at Luk 9:51.