Bible Commentaries
Luke 9

Verse 1

1 Power means the ability to control the devils, and authority means the right to do so. The twelve were the apostles, given ability also to cure diseases.

Verse 2

2 The primary object of the work was to preach the news of the kingdom; the miracles were to prove the apostles were genuine.

Verse 3

3 A scrip is a provision bag, used as a modern lunch basket. No extensive provision needed to be made while Jesus was in the world to insure their care.

Verse 4

4 There abide and thence depart means for them to make only one house call in each city, except where the first one proved to be unworthy.

Verse 5

5 After finding one proper house for their work, they were to leave for another city. As they were leaving, they were to shake the dust from their feet. That was an ancient custom of showing disapproval of the place where they had got the dust.

Verse 6

6 The gospel they preached was the good news that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. They did the healing to prove they were not false prophets.

Verse 7

7 This Herod was a son of Herod the Great. A tetrarch was a ruler over a division of a general territory. John was risen from the dead is explained at Mat 14:2.

Verse 8

8 Elias is the same as Elijah in the Old Testament. Nothing is said about his rising again for he had not died (2Ki 2:11).

Verse 9

9 The beheading of John is reported in Mat 14:1-12 and Mar 6:17-29. Desired to see him was accomplished as recorded at chapter• 23:8.

Verse 10

0 There were times when Jesus wished for private consultation with his apostles. Bethsaida was a city on the west shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Verse 11

1 It was not long until the people knew of the presence of Jesus and followed him. In his compassion he received them and gave them both spiritual teaching and physical cure for their ills.

Verse 12

2 The desert was on the east side of Jordan, but the country in general was unsettled and not equipped with many markets at which to buy food.

Verse 13

3 Jesus opened the exercises of the occasion by telling the apostles to feed the multitude. They explained how small was their supply of food at hand.

Verse 14

5 Jesus prepared to feed the multitude by a miracle of the food. For the sake of orderliness he had them sit down in convenient groups.

Verse 16

6 Looking up to heaven was in recognition of the source of all blessings. (See Jas 1:17.) The breaking was necessary because more than one person was going to partake, which was the only reason that Jesus broke the bread in Mat 26:26.

Verse 17

7 The twelve baskets of fragments remaining proves that being filled was not imaginary on the part of the multitude.

Verse 18

8 See Mat 16:13 on why Jesus asked them this question.

Verse 19

9 These statements of the people were made on the basis of an erroneous theory called "transmigration of souls." (See Mat 14:2.)

Verse 20

0 Peter's confession means "the Anointed one of God."

Verse 21

1 This is explained in the comments at Mat 16:20.

Verse 22

2 Luke's account omits the conversation about the church, but he mentions the vital fact on which it was to be built, which was to be proved by His resurrection.

Verse 23

3 To deny one's self means to disown one's earthly interests. Take up his cross is figurative and is based on the practice of compelling a doomed man to carry his own cross to the place of crucifixion.

Verse 24

4 Two kinds of life are considered here, the temporal and the spiritual. The temporal is the one meant first. If a man neglects his duty to Christ for the sake of his temporal or worldly life, he will lose his spiritual or eternal life.

Verse 25

5 The thought is that the things of this world altogether are not as valuable as the soul of man. If he exchanges his soul to gain the world it will be a transaction in which there will be no profit.

Verse 26

6 To be ashamed of one means to feel humiliated at the thought of associating with him. Christ does not expect us to become his equal in the degree of our goodness and dignity, because we are human while he is divine. But if we will obey him and do him the honor of fashioning our lives after his, he will regard it as a compliment and hence will not feel humiliated in associating with us even in the presence of his Father and the angels in the glory world.

Verse 27

7 If the kingdom of God has not yet been set up (as certain people teach), then the world has in it somewhere a number of persons who are many centuries old!

Verse 28

8 See comments at Mat 17:1 in connection with this verse.

Verse 29

9 Fashion is from EIDOS which Thayer defines, "Properly that which strikes the eye, which is exposed to view; the external appearance, form, figure, shape." Matthew (chapter 17:2) says Jesus was "trans. figured," and the definition is given at that place. The words used by each of the evangelists were true of Jesus then.

Verse 30

0 See the description of this scene at Mat 17:3. Elias was the Elijah of the Old Testament, and a faithful prophet of God.

Verse 31

1 Matthew does not tell what these men talked about, but Luke gives the subject of their conversation. Decease is from EXODOS which Thayer defines, "Exit, i. e., departure; departure from life, decease." This word is interesting from being the name given to the second book of the Bible. Accomplish is from PLEROO and the lexicon of Thayer defines it, "To make full, to fill, to fill up." The idea is that in his death Jesus completed the sacrificial service that was allotted to him by his Father. That is why he declared "it is finished" just as he was dying (Joh 19:30).

Verse 32

2 Peter and his group were under an oppressed feeling during the conversation between Jesus and his distinguished visitors. But upon being aroused they saw the trio of glorified beings.

Verse 33

3 As they departed. That is, the conversation was ended and the guests were preparing to leave. Peter wanted to detain them and proposed that provision be made for housing them. Not knowing what he said. He did not realize that beings from the unseen world would not dwell in material tabernacles.

Verse 34

4 The word cloud is used a great many times in the New Testament but seldom in connection with rain. Instead, it is used to represent something that has nothing to do with moisture which would form an object that is dark. True, this verse says the cloud overshadowed them, but the same event is recorded in Mat 17:5 where it is called a "bright cloud," which would not suggest one that was leaden with condensed vapor and ready to drop rain. The idea is that something of a miraculous character was used to indicate the presence of God.

Verse 35

5 The words hear him are in addition to what was said at the time of his baptism (Mat 3:17; Mar 1:11). They were said because the life's work of Jesus was nearing completion and he had proved his worthiness of the distinction.

Verse 36

6 They told no man was because of the instruction that Jesus gave them as they were coming down from the mountain (Mat 17:9; Mar 9:9).

Verse 37

7 Hill and mountain are used in the same sense in the New Testament. The people were generally-on hands whenever Jesus reappeared from his places of privacy.

Verse 38

8 The word master means "teacher," a term Jesus acquired among the people because of his many talks to them upon the subject of his kingdom. This son is the same case explained at Mat 17:15-18.

Verse 39

9 Spirit is from a Greek word that could apply to any disembodied being. In the present case it applies to the devil that had taken possession of the child.

Verse 40

0 See the comments on Mat 17:20-21 for the present verse.

Verse 41

1 The faithless generation was said about the disciples, according to the statements in the verses cited at 38 and 40.

Verse 42

2 This devil is the same spirit mentioned in verse 39 and so termed in this. It had supernatural power and tare the boy. The original word for this and also in verse 39, means he was thrown into convulsions. It was an affliction, hence the Lord rebuked the unclean spirit, not the lad.

Verse 43

3 The words mighty power are from a Greek original that means "majesty," and it is so translated in 2Pe 1:16. This impression of amazement was caused by the powerful circumstance of the boy's recovery from so distressing an ailment.

Verse 44

4 The sayings include what Jesus had been expressing, also the one about his expected betrayal into the hands of men.

Verse 45

5 The disciples had thought from the start that Jesus was going to set up an earthly kingdom. Such a government would require the bodily presence of the king, hence they were confused over this prediction that he was to be delivered unto men.

Verse 46

6 Their mistaken idea of the kingdom explains why they could have these thoughts about the different ranks in it, for such distinctions exist in earthly powers.

Verse 47

7 Jesus could always read the thoughts of his disciples.

Verse 48

8 Jesus loves little children because they are pure and humble. To receive such a child in his name is to do so because Jesus loves him. But no one will do that as long as he is filled with the pride of his own importance. While the man who will thus humble himself eis great in the true sense according to the mind of the Lord.

Verse 49

0 See the comments on Mar 9:38-39.

Verse 51

1 The time was come means it was getting near the time when Jesus was to leave the earth and ascend to heaven. That made it necessary for him to be in Jerusalem, hence he turned his steps in that direction.

Verse 52

2 Jesus was in Galilee at this time which would make it necessary to go through Samaria. He sent some ahead to find a place for him to stop on the way.

Verse 53

3 The Samaritans were not on good terms with the Jews (Joh 4:9), and for that reason they had a prejudice against Jerusalem. Hence they did not welcome Jesus when they learned that he was heading in that direction.

Verse 54

4 The brothers, James and John, were angered over the slight and suggested some physical destruction for them, citing the case of Elias (Elijah) in 2Ki 1:10; 2Ki 1:12. What they suggested would have been the action that is meant by pulling up the tares in the parable of the tares. (See Mat 13:28.)

Verse 55

5 This means the brothers did not realize what kind of a spirit they were manifesting. It was just the reverse of what they should have shown.

Verse 56

6 The kind of spirit they should have manifested was that of Jesus, desiring to save men from spiritual destruction. And that could not be done if their lives were destroyed by physical death as these brothers wished to do.

Verse 57

8 See the comments at Mat 8:19-20.

Verse 59

0 This paragraph is explained at Mat 8:21-22.

Verse 61

1 Following Jesus here means the bodily traveling as explained in verse 57. This man was at that very time absent from his "loved ones," and hence had not shown any great concern for them. His sudden interest in them betrayed at least a divided state of mind between them and Jesus.

Verse 62

2 Ploughs were made with one handle according to Smith's Bible Dictionary, hence the mentioning of a single handle. To make a success of the work a, farmer should keep his eye on the ground ahead of him. The work is used to illustrate what should be the attentive devotion of those professing to follow Jesus.