paradise. 44 And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. 45 And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. 46 And when Jesus had cried with w Ps. xxxi. 5. a loud voice, he said, "Father, into thy hands I com 1 better, deliver up. this day before the close of this natural day. The attempt to join it with I say unto thee ("I say unto thee this day"), considering that it not only violates common sense, but destroys the force of our Lord's promise, is surely something worse than silly; see below. shalt thou be with me can bear no other meaning than the ordinary sense of the words, 'I shall be in Paradise, and thou with Me.' in paradise] On these words rests the whole explanation of the saying. What is this PARADISE? The word is used of the garden of Eden by the LXX, Gen. ii. 8, &c., and subsequently became, in the Jewish theology, the name for that part of Hades, the abode of the dead, where the souls of the righteous await the resurrection. It was also the name for a supernal or heavenly abode, see 2 Cor. xii. 4: Rev. ii. 7, which are the only other places in which it occurs in the New Testament. The former of these is, I believe, here primarily to be understood;— but only as introductory, and that immediately, to the latter. By the death of Christ only was Paradise first opened, in the true sense of the word. He Himself, when speaking of Lazarus (ch. xvi. 22), does not place him in Paradise, but in Abraham's bosom-in that place which the Jews called Paradise, but by an anticipation which our Lord did not sanction. I believe the matter to have been thus. Our Lord spoke to the thief so as He knew the thief would understand Him; but He spoke with a fuller and more blessed meaning than he could understand then. For that day, on that very evening, was Paradise' truly regained :-opened by the death of Christ. We know (1 Pet. iii. 18, 19, where see note; iv. 6) that our Lord went down into the depths of death, -announced His triumph-(for His death was His triumph) to the imprisoned spirits, and in that moment-for change of state, to the disembodied, is possibly all that change of place implies-they perhaps were in the Paradise of God,-in the blessed heavenly place, implied by the word, 2 Cor. xii. That this is not fulness of glory as yet, is evident;-for the glorified body is not yet joined to their spirits, -they are not yet perfect (Heb. xi. 40); " but it is a degree of bliss compared to which their former degree was but as imprisonment. This work of the Lord I believe to have been accomplished on the instant of His death, and the penitent to have followed Him at his death-which took place some little time after-into the Paradise of God. That our Lord returned to take His glorified Body, was in accordance with His design, and He became thereby the firstfruits of the holy dead, who shall like Him put on the body of the resurrection, and be translated from disembodied and imperfect bliss in the Paradise of God, to the perfection of glorified humanity in His glory, and with Him, not in Paradise, but at God's right hand. 44-46.] Our account is very short and epitomizing-containing however, peculiar to itself, the last word of our Lord on the cross. The impression conveyed by this account, if we had no other, would be that the veil was rent before the death of Jesus:-but the more detailed account of St. Matthew corrects this. 45.] The words the sun was darkened are probably added to give solemnity to the preceding, assigning its It can hardly be, as Meyer, that the earth was darkened till the ninth hour, and then the sun became dark also. 46.] The use of with a loud voice shews that this was the cry to which St. Matthew and St. Mark allude. The words uttered are from the LXX, varying however from the common reading "I will commend," and giving the verb in the present, which is also the rendering of the Hebrew. These words have in them an important and deep meaning. They accompany that, which in our Lord's case was strictly speaking the act of death. It was His own act-not feeling the approach of death,' as some, not apprehending the matter, have commented; but a determinate delivering up of His spirit to the Father." He delivered up His spirit," John: see John x. 18-" no man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself." None of the Evangelists say He died: although that expression is ever after used of His death stated as one great fact:-but it is, "yielded up His spirit," Matthew; "breathed His last," reason. " mend my spirit; and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. 47 Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man. 48 And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned. 49 x And all his acquaintance, and the P. xxxviii. women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things. 11. 50 And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man and a just: 51 the same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them; he was of Arimathæa, a city of the Jews: who [m also y ch. ii. 25, 38. himself] waited for the kingdom of God. 52 This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. 54 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. 55 And the 53 And women also, render, multitudes. • literally, was dawning: see note. Mark, Luke; "delivered up His spirit," John. The spirit here is the Personality -the human soul informed by the Spirit, in union :-not separated, so that His soul went to Hades, and His spirit to the Father, as Olshausen thinks. Both are delivered into the hand of the Father; by Whom quickened, He worked His great victory over death and Hell. See again 1 Pet. iii. 18, 19 and notes, and Rom. viii. 10, 11. The latter part of the verse in Ps. xxxi. 'for Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, thou God of truth,' is not applicable here. The whole Psalm is not strictly prophetic, but is applied by the Lord to Himself. 47-49.] Our account, as well as that of St. Mark, ascribes the impression made on the centurion to that which took place at the death of Jesus, -i. e. "that He thus breathed His last." Something in the manner and words convinced him that this man was the Son of God; which expression he used doubtless with reference to what he had before heard, but especially to the words just uttered"Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." St. Luke has not expressed the words exactly the same :--but the A. V. has wrongly and ungrammatically rendered " what he relates the Centurion to have said, •] 50-56.] BURIAL OF THE BODY OF JESUS BY JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA. Matt. xxvii. 57-61. Mark xv. 42-47. John xix. 38-42: see notes on Matthew. 51. the same had not consented. Peculiar to Luke. The meaning is, he had absented himself, and taken no part in their (the council's) determination against Jesus. 54.] preparationthe day before the sabbath,'--which now drew on (was dawning);—a natural word, ᏃᏃ Z which P came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. 56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and zz Exod. xx. 10. rested the sabbath day zz according to the commandment. XXIV. 1 Now upon the first day of the week, ¶ very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, ach. xxii. 56. a bringing the spices which they had prepared [, and certain others with them]. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. 3b And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: 5 and as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the d Matt. xvi. 21: dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he 8 d xvii. 23. ch. ix. 22. spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, 7 saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. e John ii. 22. 8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returned from e z ch. viii. 2. b ver. 23. e Acts i. 10. P render, had come. romit. a literally, at deep (i.e. dusk) dawn. $ render, came upon them. used of the conventional (Jewish) day beginning at sunset. There is no reference to the lighting of candles in the evening or on the sabbath. Lightfoot has shown that such use of the word was common among the Jews, who called the evening (the beginning) of a day, 'light.' 55.] Only Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses (the other Mary,' Matthew),- Mark. 56.] They bought their spices &c. in the short time before sunset. CHAP XXIV. 1-12.] THE WOMEN COMING TO THE SEPULCHRE LEARN THAT 2.] This agrees with the more detailed the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary [t the mother] of James, and other fch. viii. s. women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. 11 8 And tt their words seemed to them as idle & ver. 25. tales, and they believed them not. 12 a Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. 13 And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. 14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. 16 But their tt read, these. render, went away home, wondering at. t not expressed in the original. " render, But Peter arose. 'when he was yet with you.' 9.] See note on Mark ver. 8. 10.] It seems as if the testimony of one of the disciples who went to Emmaus had been the ground of the whole former part-perhaps of the whole of this chapter. We find consequently this account exactly agreeing with his report afterwards, vv. 23, 24. Joanna was the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, ch. viii. 2. 12.] This verse cannot well have been interpolated from John xx., for the only reason for the insertion would be, to tally with ver. 24, and in that case it certainly would not mention Peter alone. That Cleopas says, ver. 24, certain of them that were with us went, &c. must not be pressed too much, although it does certainly look as if he knew of more than one (see note there). The similarity in diction to John xx. 5, 10-(" stooping down he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves," and "went away home," being common to the two passages) indicates a common origin, and, if I mistake not, one distinct from the rest of the narrative in this chapter. 13-35.] JESUS APPEARS TO TWO OF THE DISCIPLES AT EMMAUS. Peculiar to Luke-the incident (but from another source) is alluded to in the fragmentary addition to Mark xvi. (ver. 12.) 13.] "" of them, not of the Apostles-the last from Clopas, John xix. 25: see note on Matt. x. 3). Who the other was, is idle to conjecture. Origen, in several places, calls him Simon; apparently from having understood "saying " in ver. 34 to refer to the two from Emmaus, and referring "hath appeared unto Simon" to the present appearance. Epiphanius says it was Nathanael; Theophylact, St. Luke himself. This may shew what such reports are worth. Wieseler believes the two to have been, James the son of Alphæus or Clopas or Cleopas (but see above) journeying with his father, and the appearance on the road to Emmaus to be the same as "was seen of James," 1 Cor. xv. 7. Our narrative seems to have been from the report of Cleopas. Emmaus] Josephus also mentions this Emmaus as sixty furlongs from Jerusalem. There were two other places of the same name: (1) a town afterwards called Nicopolis, twenty-two Roman miles from Jerusalem, where Judas Maccabeus defeated the Syrian general Gorgias: see 1 Macc. iii. 40-57. (2) Another Emmaus is mentioned by Josephus as being in front of the sea of Tiberias: and he adds, that Emmaus means, that there were warm springs there. This was the case also with the other places of the name. Our Emmaus is now called Cubeibi (?). 15.] Jesus himself, of whom they had been speaking, drew near to them. But this expression forbids the supposition that He was here, strictly speaking, in another form, as we find it less precisely expressed in Mark xvi. 12. The reason why they 17 And eyes were holden that they should not know him. h Matt. xxi. 11. Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed ch. vii. 18. John iii. 2: Acts ii. 22. Iv. 10 viis, and word before God and all the people; 20 and how the Acts vii. 22. kch. xxiii. 1. trusted 28. ach. i. 68: i. that it had been he which should have a redeemed Israel: 38. Acts i. 6. and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. 22 Yea, and certain women also of our W render, disputes. I render, with. Y the reading is doubtful. The Vatican MS. has, And they stood looking sad. zrender, Dost thou sojourn alone. b literally, hoped. yy omit. a omit. did not know Him was (ver. 16), that from Jer. Taylor below, on ver. 29.) He |
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