《Expositor’s Dictionaryof Texts- Luke》(William R. Nicoll)
Commentator
Sir William Robertson Nicoll CH (October 10, 1851 - May 4, 1923) was a Scottish Free Church minister, journalist, editor, and man of letters.
Nicoll was born in Lumsden, Aberdeenshire, the son of a Free Church minister. He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and graduated MA at the University of Aberdeen in 1870, and studied for the ministry at the Free Church Divinity Hall there until 1874, when he was ordained minister of the Free Church at Dufftown, Banffshire. Three years later he moved to Kelso, and in 1884 became editor of The Expositor for Hodder & Stoughton, a position he held until his death.
In 1885 Nicoll was forced to retire from pastoral ministry after an attack of typhoid had badly damaged his lung. In 1886 he moved south to London, which became the base for the rest of his life. With the support of Hodder and Stoughton he founded the British Weekly, a Nonconformist newspaper, which also gained great influence over opinion in the churches in Scotland.
Nicoll secured many writers of exceptional talent for his paper (including Marcus Dods, J. M. Barrie, Ian Maclaren, Alexander Whyte, Alexander Maclaren, and James Denney), to which he added his own considerable talents as a contributor. He began a highly popular feature, "Correspondence of Claudius Clear", which enabled him to share his interests and his reading with his readers. He was also the founding editor of The Bookman from 1891, and acted as chief literary adviser to the publishing firm of Hodder & Stoughton.
Among his other enterprises were The Expositor's Bible and The Theological Educator. He edited The Expositor's Greek Testament (from 1897), and a series of Contemporary Writers (from 1894), and of Literary Lives (from 1904).
He projected but never wrote a history of The Victorian Era in English Literature, and edited, with T. J. Wise, two volumes of Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century. He was knighted in 1909, ostensibly for his literrary work, but in reality probably more for his long-term support for the Liberal Party. He was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 1921 Birthday Honours.
00 Introduction
Four Gospels tell their story
St. Luke
Four Gospels tell their story to mankind,
And none so full of soft, caressing words
That bring the Maid of Bethlehem and her Babe
Before our tear-dimmed eyes, as his who learned
In the meek service of his gracious art
The tones which like the medicinal balms
That calm the sufferer"s anguish, soothe our souls.
—O. W. Holmes.
References.—I:1.—H. Hensley Henson, The Value of the Bible, p69. A. G. Mortimer, The Church"s Lessons for the Christian Year, pt. i. p106. John Smith, The Integrity of Scripture, p1. Expositor (7th Series), vol. x. p548. I:1 , 2.—Ibid. (5th Series), vol. i. p339. I:1-4.—Robert J. Drummond, Faith"s Certainties, p61. Expositor (7th Series), vol. v. p243. Ibid. vol. vi. p373. I:2.—Ibid. (4th Series), vol. vi. p67; (5th Series), vol. vi. p84; (6th Series), vol. ii. p215; (7th Series), vol. v. p316.
01 Chapter 1
Verses 1-80
St. Luke"s Gospel
Luke 1:3-4
Our information concerning St. Luke is scanty. It is conjectured by some that he was one of the seventy disciples sent forth by our Lord, in addition to the twelve Apostles ( Luke 10:1). There seems no reason to doubt that he was the companion of St. Paul in his travels, and that he was a "physician" ( Colossians 4:14). Some have thought that his profession as a physician may be traced in his manner of describing our Lord"s miraculous cures of diseases, and his companionship of St. Paul in his manner of speaking on such subjects as God"s glory and Christ"s love to sinners. It is generally agreed that his Gospel was written with a special reference to Gentile converts rather than Jews. Origen, Jerome, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and others suppose that St. Paul refers to St. Luke and his Gospel in the words, "the brother whose praise is in the Gospel" ( 2 Corinthians 8:18).
The short preface is a peculiar feature of St. Luke"s Gospel. But we shall find, on examination, that it is full of most useful instruction.
I. St. Luke Gives us a Short but Valuable Sketch of the Nature of a Gospel.—He calls it, "a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us". It is a narrative of facts about Jesus Christ. Christianity is a religion built upon facts. Let us never lose sight of this. It came before mankind at first in this shape. The first preachers did not go up and down the world proclaiming an elaborate, artificial system of abstruse doctrines and deep principles. They proclaimed facts.
II. He Draws a Beautiful Picture of the True Position of the Apostles in the Early Church.—He calls them "eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word". There is an instructive humility in this expression. They were servants of the word of the Gospel. They were men who counted it their highest privilege to carry about, as messengers, the tidings of God"s love to a sinful world, and to tell the story of the Cross.
III. He Describes his own Qualifications for the Work of Writing a Gospel.—He says that he "had perfect understanding of all things from the very first". It would be mere waste of time to inquire from what source St. Luke obtained the information which he has given us in his Gospel. We have no good reason for supposing that he saw our Lord work miracles or heard Him teach. To say that he obtained his information from the Virgin Mary or any of the Apostles is mere conjecture and speculation. Enough for us to know that St. Luke wrote by inspiration of God. Unquestionably he did not neglect the ordinary means of getting knowledge. But the Holy Ghost guided him, no less than all other writers of the Bible, in his choice of matter. St. Luke does not wish his friend to remain in doubt on any matter of his faith. He tells him that he wants him to "know the certainty of those things wherein he had been instructed". Let us bless God daily that we have a written volume which is "able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" ( 2 Timothy 3:15).
Luke 1:3-4
What are the legitimate uses of the imagination, that is to say, of the power of perceiving, or conceiving with the mind, things which cannot be perceived by the senses? Its first and noblest use Isaiah , to enable us to bring sensibly to our sight the things which are recorded as belonging to our future state, or invisibly surrounding us in this... but, above all, to call up the scenes and facts in which we are commanded to believe, and be present, as if in the body, at every recorded event of the history of the Redeemer.
—Ruskin, Frondes Agrestes, sec9.
References.—I:3.—Expositor (7th Series), vol. x. p452. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. i. p144. I:3 , 4.—T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iv. pp236,243. I:5.—Expositor (5th Series), vol. v. p284. I:5-17.—A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, Luke , p1. I:9.—Ibid. (6th Series), vol. i. p393113.—A.G. Mortimer, The Church"s Lessons for the Christian Year, pi i. p9. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i.p19. I:15.—J. Keble, Sermons for the Saints" Days, p257. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, Luke , p8.
Luke 1:16
It is because we have so few high saints among us, that we have so many low sinners.
—Richard Baxter.
It would have been but a poor occupation for God to compose this heavy world out of simple elements, and to keep it rolling in the sunbeams from year to year, if He had not had the plan of founding a nursery for a world of spirits upon this material basis. So He is now constantly active in higher natures to attract the lower ones.
—Goethe.
Preparation for the Best (First Sunday in Lent)
Luke 1:17
When we speak of preparing ourselves for the future, we commonly think of some coming evil. Life Isaiah , in our familiar and apposite metaphor, a campaign; and "it is usual in war for the guns and the sentinels always to face towards the enemy however far off he may be". There is an instinctive sense of enemies in this mortal life of ours, and every day looks forward more or less anxiously to its tomorrow. Men have so generally acknowledged this state of matters that there are few vaunts which have a more honourable sound to our ears than the old Latin one in utrumque paratus. Yet the phrase is sad. Its readiness for either fate suggests alertness, but has a certain desolate suggestion also: it acknowledges the possibility of the better chance, but it somehow seems to expect the worse.
So it comes to pass that we are far more seldom ready for the better than for the worse event. Preparedness for the best things is rare, because we do not realize that they need preparation, and concentrate our attention in steeling ourselves against possible adversity.
Many a Parsifal is able to combat and unhorse his enemy, and yet is stupefied and blunders irretrievably when he sees the vision of the Holy Grail. Many an adventurer like Jacob looks back ruefully upon an hour of far-reaching promise and spiritual opportunity, saying "Surely God was in this place and I knew it not". The world, in the beginning of the first century, was adjusting itself to Augustus as best it might; but when Christ came, the world knew Him not. We are often prepared to meet the devil: to meet our God we are not prepared.
In the Church Year the great events of the Christian story group themselves into a cluster from Palm Sunday to Whitsunday, breaking the routine of the daily life with the splendid memories of Christ"s passion and resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit. It is fitting that before this season the Church should have set apart a prior season of special preparation.
I. First, there is the preparation of the purification of the heart. All meditation leads that way at once. There is much to be forgiven before we can hope to understand and triumph, and there is much also to be changed. It is only the pure in heart who can by any means see God, and the evil habits of thought, imagination, and desire must be searched out and put away.
II. There is also necessary the boldness of Divine affections. We all admit that the world Isaiah , one way or another, too much with us. Preparation, therefore, must include the practice of looking beyond the world, and carrying up our thoughts and feelings to God Himself. But it requires daring to train our eyes on the Divine, and none but the courageous in heart will succeed in doing it. For the affections that are to find God in Christ must travel along the two lines of our worst and of our best.
Let us face and fully recognise both our weakness and our strength, our worst and our best. Let us bring them both, a strange offering of contrasts, to His feet; that, in our communion with Him, His power and His love may go out upon them both, and recreate us after His image.
—John Kelman, Ephemera Etemitatis, p49.
References.—I:17.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xli. No2404. Expositor (7th Series), vol. vi. pp53 , 545118.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv. No1405.
Luke 1:19
Then Gabriel, like a rainbow"s birth,
Spread his wings and sank to earth;
Entered, in flesh, the empty cell,
Lived there, and played the craftsman well;
And morning, evening, noon and night,
Praised God in place of Theocrite;
(He did God"s will; to him, all one,
If on the earth or in the sun.)
—R. Browning, The Boy and the Angel.
Reference.—I:20.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p281.
Luke 1:25
Dr. Richard Hooker, at one period of his life, was exposed to a cruel slander against his moral character, which, says Izaak Walton, "he kept secret to himself for many months; and being a helpless Prayer of Manasseh , had lain longer under this heavy burthen, but that the Protector of the innocent gave such an accidental occasion as forced him to make it known to his two dearest friends, Edwin Sandys and George Cranmer, who were so sensible of their tutor"s sufferings, that they gave themselves no rest, till by their disquisitions and diligence they had found out the fraud, and brought him the welcome news.... To which the good man"s reply was to this purpose: "To my God I say, as did the mother of St. John Baptist, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me, in the day wherein He looked upon me, to take away my reproach among men. And, O my God! neither my life nor my reputation are safe in my own keeping, but in Thine, who didst take care of me when I yet hanged upon my mother"s breast.""
The Angel"s Greeting to the Virgin Mary
Luke 1:26-28
The festival of the Annunciation has been variously yet appropriately designated thus: "The Day of Salutation"; "the Day of the Gospel"; and "the Festival of the Incarnation". In many parts it was for some time the first day of the ecclesiastical year, as it is now, under its vernacular name—Lady Day, the first quarterly division of the ordinary year. How the ancient Church observed the day can scarcely be ascertained now. And this is not a little remarkable, as the Christian Fathers have written numerous homilies on the day itself, and the Christian Muse has for centuries been actively engaged in illustrating it To the Christian artist, the holy mysteries of the day have ever had a special fascination, as shown by the pictures and paintings—some very grotesque, others very beautiful—which were produced during the first ages succeeding the Annunciation itself. Christians of the present day regard it as the first stage of the Incarnation. Hence we gladly keep the day as a holy festival, and fix our mind upon its marvels.
I. In Old Testament times names were reckoned of paramount consequence, as they were identified with some unusual fact in personal and family life, and were also prophetical. The name Mary—so familiar to us—is the same as Miriam. Its first and best signification is "exalted"; and this applies with peculiar emphasis to Mary of Nazareth. Yet it must not be forgotten that she had lineally descended from David; therefore the blood of Israel"s ancient kings flowed in her veins. She was also a virgin—pure and spotless. Had it been otherwise she had never been the mother of Jesus, because, from first to last, He was to be holy and undefiled; and this could not possibly have been if the least fleck of impurity had been found in her nature. The place of her residence corresponded with her true condition. Nazareth means "separated" or "sanctified". Yet it was no grand metropolis, no flourishing sea-side town, but a small inland, upland city, in the heart of Galilee, called "Galilee of the Gentiles". In other words, it was a little city of carpenters; hence Joseph lived here, and though "of the house of David, "yet, being poor, he worked hard at the toilsome craft of the place. It had no reputation for learning or piety. To this little city a great angel was Divinely sent. He is called Gabriel—"the strength of God". In the celestial hierarchy he ranked next to Michael the archangel, and when in heaven, he says, "I stand in the presence of God"; that Isaiah , right before His throne.
II. Whether Mary was in her house, or what her engagement when Gabriel visited her, we know not; but he instantly saluted her—"Hail!" After this brief salutation, Gabriel bids Mary rejoice, because being "highly favoured" she is to be the mother of the Messiah. This, in truth, was the honour for which every Hebrew female intensely longed from the beginning; but Mary was Divinely chosen for this signal pre-eminency. What joy she felt when Gabriel assured her of this! When he left, she hastened to her cousin, Elisabeth, in the upland country, to communicate the information and the joy to her. "Only the meeting of saints in heaven can parallel the meeting of these two cousins: the two wonders of the world under one roof, declaring their mutual happiness!" (S. Luke 1:46-47). High dignity, beside deep joy, was now conferred upon Mary. "Thou art highly favoured," said Gabriel to her. But this dignity was not of an earthly, fleeting nature; for Mary was left by the angel in the same humble condition in which he found her; and, in truth, her humble condition was the same at the birth of Christ, and to the day of her own death. The dignity, therefore, was heavenly and lasting. So it has proved itself. No woman, from Eve downward, has been so honoured as the Blessed Virgin of Nazareth. Her very memory is fragrant as Eden. Nor is this all: "The Lord is with thee". This constituted her real blessedness, and was the climax of the annunciation of the angel. The Lord was with Mary in two sublime senses—to sustain and further deepen the joy of her soul, and to perform the covenant which Gabriel had made with her at His bidding. One other brief sentence fell from those angel lips, forming the noblest utterance ever made: "Blessed art thou among women!" After the battle of the river Kishon, and after Jael had slain, in her tent, the captain of the host of the King of Canaan, Deborah, the prophetess, pronounced the heroine "blessed above all women"; but Gabriel, the angel, pronounces a better and richer blessing on Mary; and Mary, in her glorious Magnificat, says of herself, "All generations shall call me blessed". This they have done since the birth of Christ, and this they will continue to do as long as Christ Himself shall reign, even for ever ( Luke 1:32-33).