20 Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison. 21 Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, 22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. 23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli, g Matt. iii. 13 much disputed by critics, whether these words, which are somewhat indefinite, indicate that our Lord was then entering his thirtieth year, or had completed it. Grotius contends that woe often expresses excess as well as deficiency, and that it here implies that Christ came to his baptism a few days after the birth-day of thirty complete years. Lightfoot, on the contrary, observes that the current year, however lately begun, was reckoned as a year in a person's age, and that apxoμevos, joined with woe, shows that he was beginning to be as it were thirty, or just past his twenty-ninth year. Many more recent critics take the sense to be, “And Jesus himself beginning, or when beginning (to teach) was about thirty years of age," which assumes an ellipsis of διδασκειν. The notion that the period of proved Herod, not merely for marrying Herodias, but for all the evils he had done. That is, he had habitually reproved him, as often probably as he had had access to him, which appears not to have been infrequent. And for a time his reproofs were not wholly lost, nor were they malignantly resented till the darling sin, the choice and favourite lust was touched, till the incestuous marriage with his brother Philip's wife was denounced. Then indeed Herod added this evil above all, that he shut up John in prison; which was a sin not only of injustice against man, but a crime against God, whose prophet John was; and it proved the occasion of a still greater sin than even this, for the imprisonment led finally to his murder, which Herod does not appear at first to have the least intended. Thus sin draws on sin, in rapid and frightful in- admission into the Jewish priesthood, crease! Verse 21. Now when all the people, &c.Not that our Lord was baptized publicly when others were baptized. That was private between him and John; but the meaning is, that at the period when John's ministry excited the most attention, when multitudes were coming to him to be baptized in Jordan, that is, in the early period of it, Christ went and submitted to that ordinance also. On our Lord's baptism, see the notes on Matt. iii. 13-17. Verse 23. Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, &c.—It has been which was thirty years complete, was respected at the time in which our Lord began his public ministry, has perhaps no foundation; and the principal reason of recording the age of Christ was to show that he was in the vigour of life; that he neither commenced his ministry when inexperienced, nor when his faculties had begun to suffer from age. Still it is likely that Jewish notions were not altogether disregarded, and that, as they thought thirty years to be the most fitting period for entering upon public offices, this was conformed to both in the case of John and Jesus; and with reference to this imprec 24 Which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph, 25 Which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Amos, which was the son of Naum, which was the son of Esli, which was the son of Nagge, 26 Which was the son of Maath, which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Semei, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Juda, 27 Which was the son of Joanna, which was the son of Rhesa, which was the son of Zorobabel, which was the son of Salathiel, which was the son of Neri, 28 Which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Addi, which was the son of Cosam, which was the son of Elmodam, which was the son of Er, 29 Which was the son of Jose, which was the son of Eliezer, which was the son of Jorim, which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, 30 Which was the son of Simeon, which was the son of Juda, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son of Eliakim, 31 Which was the son of Melea, which was the son of Menan, sion it was recorded. The words, after all the criticism expended upon them, appear simply to mean that our Lord, at the time of his baptism, was just entering upon the completion of thirty years, vai merely being supplied after αρχόμενος. As was supposed. This was the general belief; the account of the miraculous conception not being made public, but reserved in the breasts of Joseph and Mary. When it was first declared does not appear. The absence of all allusion to it in the subsequent history of the gospel, makes it probable that it was not declared even to the disciples themselves, so that they as well as others supposed him to be the son of Joseph as well as Mary, and that it was one of those things which Mary kept in her heart, under divine direction, till after the resurrection from the dead. The previous publication of it must have exposed her to numerous and often captious interrogatories after Christ had entered upon his ministry; and when there was so much division of opinion respecting him, with his enemies, it might have exposed her to some danger, or placed her, at least, in very trying circumstances. These considerations make it strongly probable, that this fact was not made known to any during the life of Christ. St. Luke, however, by his qualifying clause, being, as was SUPPOSED, the Son of Joseph, shows that it had been among the earliest facts made known to the first disciples after the ascension, and was, without doubt, received. Hence it makes a part of two of the Gospels, St. Matthew's and St. Luke's. On the genealogy of our Lord, see the notes on Matt. i. 2. which was the son of Mattatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David, 32 Which was the son of Jesse, which was the son of Obed, which was the son of Booz, which was the son of Salmon, which was the son of Naasson, 33 Which was the son of Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Esrom, which was the son of Phares, which was the son of Juda, 34 Which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham, which was the son of Thara, which was the son of Nachor, 35 Which was the son of Saruch, which was the son of Ragau, which was the son of Phalec, which was the son of Heber, which was the son of Sala, 36 Which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech, 37 Which was the son of Methusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan, 38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God. CHAPTER IV. 1 The temptation and fasting of Christ. 13 He overcometh the devil: 14 beginneth to preach. 16 The people of Nazareth admire his gracious words. 33 He cureth one possessed of a devil, 38 Peter's mother in law, 40 and divers other sick persons 41 The devils acknowledge Christ, and are reproved for it. 43 He preacheth through the cities. a 1 AND Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days a Matt. iv. 1. Verse 38. Which was the son of God.Adam is so called, as having no human father, and not being begotten, but created immediately by the divine power. CHAPTER IV. Verse 2. Being forty days tempted.-St. Matthew places the temptations which are recorded at the close of the forty days; but it follows from his account that there must have been previous temptations, since it was for this purpose that our Lord was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Hence, there is no discrepancy in the accounts he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. 3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. 4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. 5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. 7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. 8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: 10 For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: 11 And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. 14 ¶ And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. b 16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been *Or, fall down before me. St. Luke also varies the order of the specific temptations of which an account is given; but as nothing depends upon the mere circumstance of their succession, the order became a matter of indifference. b Matt. xiii. 54. On our Lord's temptation, see the notes on Matt. iv. 1—11. Verse 16. As his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day.— Let it be observed, that to attend the brought up and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. 17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent c Isaiah lxi. 1. public worship of God, on the sabbath, in the synagogue, was THE CUSTOM of our Lord; so that the obligation of this duty upon us cannot be questioned. On synagogues, see note on Matt. iv. 23. And stood up for to read.-By this action he signified his desire to read the lesson for the day, which any might do to whom the book was delivered, but not without leave of the ruler of the synagogue; for so the Jewish rule runs, according to Maimonides: "A reader may not read until the chief of the congregation bids him read." It was the custom to stand at the reading of the law and the prophets. Every sabbath-day, the Jews say, seven persons read,―a priest, a Levite, and five Israelites. Verses 17, 20. There was delivered to him the book of the prophet Esaias.-This would be done at the bidding of the president, by the Chazan, one of the ministers of the synagogue. The sacred books were taken out of the chest in which they were deposited with great reverence. It would seem by the book of Isaiah being delivered to Christ, that each book was kept separately; no doubt for convenience of reference, and also for holding in the hand, as they were written on skins and rolled up. And when he had opened, literally "unrolled," the book, he found the place where it was written; a mode of expression which intimates that it was not the portion assigned to be read for the day. The sections or lessons of the law were, it would seem, read with great exactness; but in the prophets, the reader might read less than the portion appointed, or even turn to another place, if thought applicable. Here our Lord reads only a few verses, and those out of the order, and makes them the text of a discourse. Liberty of expounding and exhorting in the synagogues was allowed to qualified persons, and creditable strangers, by consent of the ruler; and when our Lord gave the signal of his wish to read, by standing up, he might include in it a desire to expound also; for having closed the book, and returned it to the minister, he sat down, as the manner of the Jewish doctors was, when they taught or preached, understanding that he had the consent of the president to comment upon the passage, as well as to read it. The passage he had selected from Isaiah, they all knew related to the Messiah, for in that their interpreters were universally agreed; and as he had already preached largely throughout Galilee, and spoken and acted in the character of Messiah, the eyes of all them in the synagogue were fastened upon him, in eager expectation as to what use he might make of the passage, or whether he would apply it to himself. Verses 18, 19. To the poor.-In the Hebrew it is the meek, but St. Luke follows the LXX. The words, however, come from the same root; and spiritual poverty, or lowliness and humility of mind, is intended. Not indeed, as Bishop Horsley well observes, that the figurative sense is to exclude the literal; " for the Christian revelation is emphatically glad tidings to the poor," as it opens to them without respect of persons the same glorious hopes as to the most exalted. Still even these must become " poor in spirit" before they can obtain the true riches. The broken hearted are the contrite and penitent, who are truly healed by pardoning |