6 Then Jesus went with them. under authority, having under And when he was now not far me soldiers, and I say unto one, from the house, the centurion Go, and he goeth; and to sent friends to him, saying unto another, Come, and he cometh; him, Lord, trouble not thyself; and to my servant, Do this, e for I am not worthy that and he doeth it. thou shouldest enter under my roof: though not frequently, even in a Christian land, that a wealthy Christian man, with a liberality equal to that of this pagan convert, munificently builds a Christian church. The Jews divided converts into two classes, I. Proselytes of the gate, who had not entered into the complete adoption of the ritual of Moses. These stood on the patriarchal basis, aiming to keep the seven precepts of Noah's dispensation. By these they were to abstain from 1, idolatry; 2, murder; 3, incest; 4, robbery; 5, profanity; 6, eating blood and strangled animal food; 7, rebellion. Those keeping these ethical principles would, according to Jewish opinion, be saved. These were commonly styled, Those worshipping God, in distinction from those worshipping gods. II. Proselytes of righteousness-Those who became circumcised, and accepted the whole law as complete naturalized Jews. Whether the present centurion had progressed so far as complete Judaism not, he seems to have progressed farther, even into the righteousness of Christ by faith. 7. Say in a word--Order it with a single word. It requires neither machinery, nor process, nor effort, but the briefest, slightest forth-putting of thy will. He speaks like one accustomed to martial law. 8. Set under authority-Under the Roman senate or emperor as a soldier; 9 When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. f Psa. 107. 20. under a tribune as a centurion. And, therefore, both by receiving and giving absolute order, I know what absolute command is. How perfectly precise a thought of our Lord's power the centurion had, is not clear. We promptly reject Lange's notion, that he had a pagan imagination of trooping "genii," flitting forth at Jesus's word. The builder of a synagogue, doubtless, knew enough of the synagogue teaching to realize that the beings of mythology were excluded from the Mosaic system. It certainly could not be unknown to a man of such faith, and so prominent in Capernaum, that Jesus claimed to work miracles as prophet of Jehovah, and son of the only true God. So pagan a faith as Lange concedes him would hardly have drawn forth the Lord's deep surprise and high eulogy. 8. My servant-The singular does not indicate (as Lange) that he had but me servant. The one servant corresponds with the one and another of the soldiers, to whom order is individually given. For aught the text shows, he might have had as many servants as soldiers. 9. So great faith-Great because he had to ascend from paganism to attain it; great, because not purely physical, but spiritual, realizing his own unworthiness and the superiority of Jesus as a holy one; great, because it realized the divine mission of Jesus from Jehovah, and expressed a sense of profound submission to his absolute word. It 10 And they that were sent, 12 Now when he came nigh returning to the house, found to the gate of the city, behold, the servant whole that had there was a dead man carried been sick. out, the only son of his mother, 11 And it came to pass the and she was a widow: and day after, that he went into a much people of the city was city called Nain; and many of with her. his disciples went with him, and much people. 13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on g Heb. 2. 17, & 4. 15. was a faith enabling him to accept all that Jesus should teach, and obey all that he should command. Apostolic faith did not surpass it. $38.-THE RAISING FROM THE DEAD THE SON OF THE WIDOW OF NAIN, 11-17. (Given by Luke alone.) The next day after the healing of the centurion's servant, Jesus, with a number of his disciples, took an excursion to the village of Nain, situated in the great plain of Esdraelon, about five miles northward from the Lesser Hermon. As this was a distance of about twenty-five miles from Capernaum, the company of Jesus must either have, according to eastern custom, set out very early, or have arrived as eve was approaching. Nain. No convent, no tradition marks the spot. But under these circumstances the name is sufficient to guarantee its authenticity. One entrance alone could it have had-that which opens on the rough hillside in its downward slope to the plain. It must have been in this descent, as, according to Eastern custom, they 'carried out the dead man,' that nigh to the gate' of the village the bier was stopped, and the long procession of mourners stayed, and the young man delivered back to his mother. It is a spot which has no peculiarity of feature to fix it on the memory; its situation is like that of all villages on this plain; but, in the authenticity of its claims, and the narrow compass within which we have to look for the touching incident, it may rank among the most interesting points of the scenery of the Gospel narrative." Our Lord enters on the eastern side of the town, attended by his retinue of followers, attracted by his ministry and-Palestine, p. 349. his miracles. As he approaches, his company is met by a procession with bearers sustaining a bier, carrying a corpse through the gate of the city of the living to the city of the dead. There was no close coffin; but the body of a young man lay stretched upon the bier, with his face, feet, and hands probably bare, wrapped in the habiliments of burial. The much people of the city indicated the respect entertained for the dead. There seems to be but a single mourner, and she had but a single son to mourn for. 13. Compassion on her-"Here was no solicitor," says Bishop Hall, "but his own compassion. The centurion came to him for a servant, the ruler for a son, Jairus for a daughter, the neighbours for a paralytic; here he seeks up the patient, and offers the cure unrequested. While we have to do with the Father of mercies, our afflictions are the most powerful suitors." Compassion for her is the suggesting motive, but doubtless other reasons favoured the result. There was a temper of faith and tenderness in both his followers and the funeral "On the northern slope of the rugged assembly, that stood in perfect conand barren ridge of Little Hermon,' trast to the faithlessness of the Nazsays Stanley, "immediately west of En-arenes, from whose hands he had so dor, which lies in a farther recess of lately walked forth, rejected and rethe same range, is the ruined village ofjecting. 1 Or, coffin.h Chap. 8. 54; John 11. 43; Acts j Chap. 24. 19; John 4. 19, & 6. 14, & 9. 17 9. 40; Rom. 4. 17.-i Chap. 1. 65. Weep not-The large attendance came to weep with her; this stranger met them to arrest her tears. They came to deposit her son in the tomb; he came to give him back to life. Like John, in Rev. v, 5, she was bidden to weep not, because the Lion of the tribe of Judah had prevailed to unseal the enclosures of death. 14. They that bare him stood still Jesus, at the head of his attendants, was not unknown to them. The bear ers of the bier obeyed the touch of his arresting hand. They trusted that this stoppage by the great prophet meant something. I say-The Lord speaks as if the case of life and death was controlled by the will of this I. Arise -And this utterance to the body is heard by the departed soul. In the land of spirits, the spirit receives the sudden message to return. For to call the dead to life requires the Lord of both worlds, who holds the keys of death and of Hades. k Exod. 4. 31; Psa. 106. 4; chap. 1. 68. awakened dead souls to life. Who knows how many true Christian converts remained faithful in this sweet Nain, (the name in Hebrew signifies pleasant,) and who knows what numbers now sleep in the many tombs that, at the present day, stand thick upon the eastern side of the slope, who in eternity shall rejoice over the mighty work of that day? A great prophetGreater than Elijah, who indeed raised the dead, but with what pains and multiplied efforts! Jesus speaks the resurrection word, and it is done. And yet the evangelist narrates it in the simplest style, without any purpose of displaying the superiority of Jesus by the comparison. Fear-glorified-This is a remarkable blending of awe at the display of divine power, and joy at the divine mercy. So God is truly said to be “fearful in praises." Exod. xv, 11. 17. Rumour-How many times Jesus may have raised the dead we know 15. Dead sat up...began to speak-not; we have record of but three cases. As the soul is again enshrined in the bodily frame, then the bodily action recommences. The raised corpse is about to speak. What will this man from the dead say? Whatever he would say; whether he would express his astonishment at the scene around him, or would commence disclosing the secrets of the spirit-land, his speech is cut short. Jesus silences his lips by handing him over to his mother. Such a benefactor can say weep not with a value in his words. 16. They glorified God-Truly the miracle has not been in vain, if it has And these three cases form a striking climax. The daughter of Jairus was raised upon her bed; the son of this widow was raised from his bier; and Lazarus was raised from his tomb. Yet this is no contrived climax, but appears spontaneously, from a comparison of three evangelists, each of whom contributes his part without being aware what his fellow-evangelist reports, or conscious of the effect of the whole. Did not a divine inspiration, unrealized by them, comprehend and bring out the composite result? 18 1 And the disciples of John 23 And blessed is he, whososhowed him of all these things. ever shall not be offended in me. 24 And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John. What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind? 25 But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts. 26 But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. r 27 This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. 28 For I say unto you, Among 7 Matt. 11. 2.—m Gen. 49. 10; Num. 24, 17; o Isa, 35, 3, & 42. 7.—p Chap. 4. 18.-g Matt. Dan. 9. 24; Zech. 9. 9.-n Matt. 11. 4, There is one striking peculiarity in this resurrection-miracle at Nain that no commentator seems to have noticed. Jesus appears to have gone twenty-five miles in a single day with a competent, ikavo, number of disciples, (to witness it, doubtless,) to perform the deed, so timing his arrival as to meet the corpse at the proper instant. And then, as not a syllable intimates any further doing or staying at Nain, it would seem that his whole object was accomplished. Was it that he beheld in spirit from Capernaum that there was a subject at Nain upon whom, according to the laws of his action, a resurrection could most wisely be wrought? Perhaps he saw that the wonderful work might there be performed with least of turbulent commotion; meeting a spirit of most candid and tender faith, under attestation of a 11. 7. Mal. 3. 1. competent body of witnesses, in a spot best adapted to bear the record to future ages. § 39.-JESUS'S ANSWER TO THE MES SAGE FROM JOHN THE BAPTIST, 18-23. (See notes on Matt. xi, 2–19.) § 40.-JESUS'S REFLECTIONS ON THIS APPEAL TO HIS MIGHTY WORKS, 24-36. (See notes on Matt. xi, 20-30.) S 41. THE WOMAN, A SINNER, PUBLICLY ASSURED BY JESUS AT MEAT IN THE PHARISEE'S HOUSE, 36-50. (Given by Luke alone.) This beautiful narrative is given by Luke without any assignment of place or time, so that harmonists are at liberty to exercise their discretion to assign it the most probable position. As Magdala is not far from Nain, some old commentators, and the Romanist those that are born of women and ye have not danced; we there is not a greater prophet have mourned to you, and ye than John the Baptist: but he have not wept. that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. S 29 And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. 30 But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him. 3 2 t 31 And the Lord said, " Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? 32 They are like unto children titting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, Matt. 3. 5; chap. 3. 12,- -2 Or, frustrated. t Acts 20. 27.-3 Or, within themselves, u Matt. 11. 16. writers generally, identify this female sinner with Mary Magdalene. But, first, there is no proof that Mary Magdalene was ever so a sinner as to render her company ritually unclean. Second, the first naming of her by Luke, a few verses ahead, indicates her not to have been hitherto mentioned. The identity of the two was certainly unsuspected by Luke. Third, she is so named, in company so honourable in rank, and with such evident priority to them, as to indicate her superiority over them. Fourth, the expulsion from her of demons | does not prove either wickedness, degraded character, or low rank; and the noble females mentioned in company with her seem all to be connected with Jesus by gratitude for similar miracles of mercy. Lange and Van Oosterzee incline to revive the old identification. The English editor of Lange's Life of Jesus says that "to deny this is one of the present fashions of interpreters." But no plausible grounds are 33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil. 34 The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! 35 But wisdom is justified of all her children. 36 And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat. 37 And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat v Matt. 3. 4; Mark 1. 6; chap. 1. 15.—w Matt. 11. 19. Mat. 26. 6; Mark 14. 3; John 11. 2. y Romans 5. 8; 1 Timothy 1. 9. furnished by either for the revival of the obsolete contrary "fashion." 37. A woman in the city...a sinner— It is not said that her character was notorious through town, or that she was "a woman of the town;" but that, being in town, she heard of the Lord's also being there, and where he was. Dr. Clarke holds, correctly we think, that the word sinner, here and often elsewhere, signifies heathen or Gentile. The decisive proof-text for this then customary meaning of the word is Gal. ii, 15, where it was held ritually unclean to eat with sinners, namely, of the Gentiles. The phrase publicans and sinners requires this meaning; otherwise the phrase is a solecism; for the publicans themselves were a class of sinners in the com.mon sense of that term. See Mark ii, 15-17; xiv, 41; Luke xv, 1, 2, 7, 10; xix, 7; Johu ix, 31. To this woman there evidently belongs a previous history, which Luke pre |