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1–16. The message of the seventy apostles to preach. – 17–24. Returning them from travel. – 25–37. Lawyer and Good Samaritan. – 38–42. Mary and Martha. Luke 10:1. After this the Lord also chose seventy other disciples, and sent them two by two before Him to every city and place where He Himself wanted to go, Only one evangelist, Luke, reports that 70 apostles were sent to preach. But the instructions with which Christ addresses these apostles represent a repetition of what the Lord says to the 12 apostles in the Gospel of Matthew or a borrowing of sayings placed in other places in the Gospel of Matthew. "After this". Apparently, the election of 70 (according to some ancient codes - 72) apostles happened shortly after the sending of the 12 (see Luke 9: 1 et seq.). In fact, it says here that the Lord sent “and” others - but who did He send first? Obviously, not two messengers (who are not called apostles, see Luke 9:52), but precisely 12 apostles: there is only the word “twelve”, but here the corresponding word is “seventy”. “Elected” – more precisely: “declared them appointed” (ἀνέδειξεν). "Seventy" . The Lord could have had in mind the election of 70 elders by Moses as his assistants (Num. 11:16 et seq.). There can be no question of the relationship of this figure to the 70 pagan nations (Gen. 10), because the Lord sent them before Him, “where He Himself wanted to go,” and He was sent only “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24). “Where I wanted to go.” The Seventy, obviously, were only supposed to prepare people to accept Christ, and, having soon fulfilled this assignment, they again became the level of simple disciples of Christ. However, the Church has preserved this honorary rank in its remembrance, establishing a special celebration of the 70 apostles, among whom, however, there are persons who at that time were not at all disciples of Christ (for example, James and Jude, brothers of the Lord in the flesh). Luke 10:2. and he said to them: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. In Luke this saying has a somewhat peculiar meaning. The twelve apostles already sent to preach are not enough for such a great work as preaching about the approaching Kingdom of the Messiah. Therefore, addressing His 70 disciples, the Lord commands them, as before the 12, to concentrate their thoughts in prayer about this great need of the time. Having prayed, they will understand the greatness of their task and will greet with joy the calling that Christ wants to honor them with. After these words, the evangelist has some pause. The disciples pray - and become able to accept the commission that Christ further gives them (verse 3 et seq.). Luke 10:3. Go! I send you out like lambs among wolves. Since these apostles could hardly be threatened with persecution at the present time, in the Evangelist Luke this appeal of Christ to them again has its own meaning. It may very well be that Christ compares them not to meek lambs, but to strong rams (ἄρνας), which usually go ahead of the flock, showing it the way. These 70 should be such leaders of the Jews to Christ, in contrast to wolves (λύκων) or false leaders of the people, who lead the people only to destruction and even themselves, like wolves, plunder the flock (cf. John 10:12). Luke 10:4. Do not take a bag, a scrip, or shoes, and do not greet anyone on the road. “Don’t greet anyone on the road.” This remark of the Evangelist Luke does not indicate the haste with which the 70 must carry out their work and which is hampered by long eastern greetings (see Bishop Michael), but only that the offer of peace or salvation should not be made on the way, somehow, so to speak, in passing, but seriously and carefully, after the two apostles have entered the house and there entered into close relations with the owners of the house. Luke 10:5. Whatever house you enter, first say: peace to this house; Luke 10:6. and if the son of peace is there, then your peace will rest on him, but if not, then it will return to you. "Son of Peace", i.e. a person worthy to accept salvation, capable of assimilating it. Luke 10:7. Stay in that house, eat and drink what they have, for the worker is worthy of reward for his labors; do not move from house to house. Luke 10:8. And if you come to any city and they receive you, eat what they offer you, Luke 10:9. and heal the sick who are in it, and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near you. “In that same house,” i.e. who will accept you. “Worthy of reward” (see Matthew 10:10). Luke 10:10. If you come to a city and they don’t accept you, then go out into the street and say: Luke 10:11. and we shake off the ashes that cling to us from your city for you; however, know that the Kingdom of God has drawn near to you. Luke 10:12. I tell you that on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that city. “They will not accept you,” that is, despite requests for shelter, they will not accept you anywhere. “Going out into the street”, i.e. in the face of all the inhabitants of that city. “We’ll shake you off.” The inhospitality of the townspeople is sufficient evidence of their insusceptibility to the preaching of salvation: therefore, there is no need for the apostles to try hard to instill in these people the need to turn to Christ (cf. Matt. 7:6). “However, know...” The apostles must nevertheless point out the responsibility that threatens these stubborn people in view of the approach of the Kingdom of God, which for them will bring with it retribution for their stubbornness. Luke 10:13. Woe to you, Chorazin! woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the powers that were demonstrated in you had been demonstrated in Tire and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes; Luke 10:14. but it will be more tolerable for Tire and Sidon in judgment than for you. Luke 10:15. And you, Capernaum, who ascended to heaven, will be cast down to hell. Here the Evangelist Luke cites threats to cities, said, according to the Gospel of Matthew, on another occasion (Matthew 11:21–23). Here these threats are more in place than in the Gospel of Matthew. The Lord, sending 70 disciples, recalls those cities that did not accept Him Himself, and by this explains to the disciples the importance of their embassy: those who do not listen to them will be punished as much as those who did not listen to Christ Himself will be punished. Luke 10:16. He who listens to you listens to Me, and he who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me. This is, so to speak, a conclusion to previous threats. See Matt. 10:40 13 Luke 10:17. Seventy disciples returned with joy and said: Lord! and the demons obey us in Thy name. The disciples, of course, did not all immediately return from the journey, but the Evangelist Luke, depicting only the essence of the matter, presents them gathered at the same time around Christ and talking about the result of their journey. However, the evangelist does not mention how the disciples were met in the cities; he considers it more important to report Christ’s conversation with the 70 regarding the miracles that they performed during their journey. “And the demons obey us.” The Lord did not give the 70 a direct command to cast out demons, as he did to the 12 (Luke 9:1). That is why the 70 were so happy when their attempts to cast out demons from the possessed were crowned with success. “About Your name”, i.e. as soon as we proclaimed Your name (cf. Luke 9:49). Luke 10:18. He said to them: I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning; "I saw" (ἐθεώρουν). When did the Lord see the fall of Satan? Gregory the Theologian and some other holy fathers and teachers of the Church attribute this vision or fall of Satan to the moment of the incarnation of the Son of God, through which Satan was deprived of his power. Other fathers and teachers of the Church (for example, Blessed Theophylact) attribute this fall to the time of Satan’s falling away from God, as a result of which he lost his position in heaven, which Christ saw as the Word of God incarnate. But these interpretations are not applicable in the present case, since neither the Fall of Satan nor the incarnation of the Son of God is associated with Satan’s loss of power over the world - Satan, on the contrary, has only become dangerous to the world since his fall, and likewise, the incarnation of the Son of God only gave him a reason to intensify his activity (the multiplication of those possessed by Christ). Meanwhile, Christ has in mind precisely the destruction of the power of Satan. Therefore, it is more correct to attribute this fall of Satan to the time of the preaching and miraculous activity of the 70 apostles. When these latter performed miraculous expulsions of demons, the Lord saw it so clearly and so vividly felt the fall of Satan’s power, as if he had seen brilliant lightning fall from heaven. Another interesting interpretation is expressed by Spitt’s scholar in “Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft” (1908, Heft 2). In his opinion, the Lord was not talking here about the fall or overthrow of Satan, because He does not use here the verb ἐκβάλλειν, which really means overthrow (see John 12:31), but the verb πίπτειν - to fall. Therefore, one can think that here we are talking about the rapid descent of Satan to earth, about his haste with which he rushed to defend his power over people, which began to be threatened by the apostles who went to the cities with the news of Christ (πεσόντα - rushed). Thus, the Lord, in response to the overly joyful statement of His disciples, says that they still have a very difficult struggle ahead of them with Satan, who has rushed to defend his Kingdom, but that in this struggle they still won thanks to the power that He gives them (verse 16). By “vision” we cannot understand the ecstatic state in which the prophets sometimes found themselves: the Lord was never in such a state, somewhat beyond the limits of the natural healthy state of the soul, and the secrets of heaven were always open to Him. The expression “saw” is therefore equivalent to the expression “I know well.” "Falled from the Sky". This expression does not imply that Satan was hitherto in heaven, but only means his high position (cf. verse 15; Is. 14:12). “Like lightning”, i.e. The fall of Satan is as visible to Christ as lightning is visible in the sky (cf. Matthew 24:27). Luke 10:19. Behold, I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will harm you; "I give." According to the best codes - “gave” (δέδωκα). With these words, the Lord not only explains that His disciples were able to cast out demons from people, but also makes it clear how great is the power given to them by Christ over all forces hostile to the Kingdom of God. Although this was not mentioned when sending the 70 to preach (verse 2 et seq.), nevertheless, the apostles, obviously, from their own experience were convinced that this power was indeed granted to them, they do not object to such a statement of Christ, but they should have objected if they did not have such power. “Step on snakes and scorpions” (scorpions are reptiles whose bite often causes death). This is a figurative designation (see Ps. 90:13) of dangerous demonic forces, which 70, like a conqueror stepping on the neck of a defeated enemy, must step on with all their might with their feet ( Rom. 16:20). The seventy apostles are thus God's instruments in the defeat of all evil forces hostile to the Kingdom of God. “And nothing...” – more precisely: and in no way or at all will it, the power of the enemy, harm you (cf. the expression οὐδέν in Acts 25:10 and Gal. 4:1–2, where it is translated by the word “nothing”). Luke 10:20. However, do not rejoice that the spirits obey you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. However, you should rejoice not so much in the fact that you have such power, but in the fact that you will eventually receive the highest bliss in the Kingdom of Heaven. Even in the Old Testament there are poetic passages in which God is depicted as holding a book of life, in which he enters the names of people who deserve to be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven (Ex. 32:32 et seq.; Ps. 69:29; Is. 4:3). There are also 70 recorded in this book. Luke 10:21. At that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said: I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Hey, Father! For such was Your good pleasure. Luke 10:22. And turning to the disciples, he said: everything has been handed over to Me by My Father; and who the Son is, no one knows except the Father, and who the Father is, no one knows except the Son, and to whom the Son wants to reveal. Luke 10:23. And, turning to the disciples, he said to them especially: blessed are the eyes that see what you see! Luke 10:24. For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see and did not see, and to hear what you hear and did not hear. These words, according to the Evangelist Matthew, were spoken under other circumstances (Matthew 11:25–27, 13:16–17). One might think that the real place for the sayings of Christ is precisely here, where the Evangelist Luke gives them, because they fully correspond to the context of the speech. "At that hour", i.e. at the hour of return 70. “He rejoiced” like a father rejoicing at the success of his children (Theophylact). “By the Spirit” – according to the best reading: “By the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit filled Christ (Luke 4:1) and was, so to speak, a constant stimulator of Him to Messianic activity. And this time, Christ appears precisely as the Messiah, the King of His Kingdom, distributing rewards to His faithful servants. "This", i.e. what Christ's disciples proclaimed. “Who is the Son”, i.e. who He is in His essence. “Especially” (verse 23). It is clear that outside listeners were also present during this conversation between Christ and the 70. “And kings” (verse 24). This expression is found only in Luke. Luke 10:25. And so, one lawyer stood up and, tempting Him, said: Teacher! What must I do to inherit eternal life? During Christ’s conversation with the 70, strangers were also present (verse 23). Among such persons there was one lawyer (see Matt. 5:20, 22:35). He did not like the fact that Christ was taking so much credit for Himself (verse 24), and he stood up, indicating that he wanted to speak: earlier, he apparently sat among the other listeners of Christ. He wanted to tempt Christ, to induce Him to say something directly in condemnation of the Law of Moses and then, of course, to come forward with an accusation against Him (Euphemius Zigaben). Wed. Matthew 22:35 14 “What shall I do” (see Mark 10:17). Luke 10:26. He said to him, “What is written in the law?” how do you read? Luke 10:27. He answered and said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. Luke 10:28. Jesus said to him: You answered correctly; do this and you will live. “What does the law say?” Those. You, of course, know the law itself well, and it is written there what you should do (cf. Rom. 2:17–20). “How do you read?” This is the usual rabbinical formula to begin a proof from Scripture. How (poj), i.e. what words (not “what”). “He answered and said...” (see Mark 12:29–32; Matt. 22:37–39). The lawyer, thus, repeats what the Lord Himself said under other circumstances to explain the essence of the Law of Moses. “And you will live,” i.e. you will inherit eternal life (cf. verse 25). Luke 10:29. But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus: who is my neighbor? "Wanting to justify myself". The lawyer found himself in a rather cramped position: he, it turned out, knew what to do, and yet he asked! Therefore, he wants to show that his question had meaning, that in the solution that he gives to this question, in accordance with Christ, there is still something unsaid. Namely, it is still unclear who is the neighbor who needs to be loved. In the law, of course, “neighbor” generally means a fellow tribesman (Lev. 19:16 et seq.), but also in relation to a “stranger” or a stranger it was required to love him as oneself (Lev. 19:34 et seq.). The lawyer expected that Christ would rather emphasize in His answer his love for strangers than for his own, the Jews, and this could bring Him down in the eyes of his fellow tribesmen, because Most Jews understood the commandment to love one's neighbor in a narrow sense, limited to their nationality. Luke 10:30. To this Jesus said: a certain man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and was caught by robbers, who took off his clothes, wounded him and left, leaving him barely alive. In response to the lawyer’s question, the Lord tells him about one man who, walking from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell into the hands of robbers, who robbed him and at the same time wounded him, leaving him on the road. From the context of the speech we can conclude that the Lord meant a Jew by being robbed. “Jericho” (see Matthew 20:29) was separated from Jerusalem by the desert, which was very dangerous for travelers, as robbers hid there. Luke 10:31. By chance, a priest was walking along that road and, seeing him, passed by. A priest who happened to be passing here passed by: he himself was probably afraid of suffering the fate of a robbed man. In the story, the Lord puts the priest in first place, because the priests were supposed to serve as an example of fulfilling the law in general and the law of mercy in particular. Luke 10:32. Likewise, the Levite, being at that place, came up, looked and passed by. The Levites also belonged to the number of teachers of the people (that is why they were resettled by Moses in different cities of Palestine), and, however, the Levite, who looked at the wounded man, also went his way, without doing anything for the unfortunate man. Luke 10:33. A Samaritan, passing by, found him and, seeing him, took pity on him. Luke 10:34. and, coming up, bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine; and, setting him on his donkey, brought him to the inn and took care of him; Luke 10:35. and the next day, as he was leaving, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper and said to him: take care of him; and if you spend anything more, when I return, I will give it back to you. Only the Samaritan (see Matt. 10:5), a man who, it seemed, should not have cared at all about a Jew, even if he was wounded, took pity on the unfortunate man when, while passing, he saw him. He bandaged his wounds, poured wine and oil on them, as the medicine of that time advised, and, putting him on his donkey, brought him to the hotel (caravanserai, where there was an owner who received travelers). The next day, leaving, he entrusted the wounded man to the care of the owner, giving him some money - two denarii (about 40 kopecks 15), in the hope of returning soon again and then completely settling accounts with the owner. Luke 10:36. Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the one who fell among the robbers? Luke 10:37. He said: He showed him mercy. Then Jesus said to him: Go and do likewise. Now Christ, apparently, should have said to the lawyer: “Do you see from the example of the Samaritan who is your neighbor? This is every person, no matter what nation he belongs to.” But the Lord does not put things that way. The Lord leaves aside the question of who is neighbor to each of us, as it is quite clearly resolved by the above story. He gives the lawyer another question - not theoretical, but practical: which of the three who passed by the wounded man turned out to be his “neighbor”, i.e. who fulfilled in relation to him the requirement of love, which the law inspires in everyone? The lawyer had to answer this question like this: “who showed him mercy” (he didn’t want to say “Samaritan” directly). The Lord then releases him, advising him to act like the Samaritan. Thus, the Lord leaves the soil of theoretical reasoning and debate, which, of course, would never end, and reduces the whole question to how a person’s natural feeling resolves the question posed by a lawyer. The fathers and teachers of the Church attached a special mysterious meaning to certain points in this story about the Good Samaritan. Thus, “a certain person,” according to their interpretation, is Adam, Jerusalem is paradise, Jericho is the world, thieves are demons, priests are the law, the Levite is the prophets, the Samaritan is Christ, the donkey is the body of Christ, the inn is the Church, the owner is the bishop, two denarii are the Old and New Testaments, the return is the second coming (see, for example, Theophylact). Thus, according to the interpretation of the Church Fathers, this depicts the feat of the Incarnate Son of God, raised by Him for the salvation of the human race. (For a detailed discussion of this idea, see Trench. The Parables of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 2nd ed., pp. 268–272.) In the story of the Good Samaritan, the Lord intended to show the lawyer “the great abyss separating knowledge and action, how little life itself answered to his moral concept of love for others” (Trench, p. 274). The one who asked: “who is my neighbor,” who wanted for himself a preliminary complete statement of duties towards his neighbor, thereby revealed how little he understood love, the essence of which is that it knows no limits except its inability to go further (ibid., p. 261). It is usually customary to call this story about the Good Samaritan a parable. But, strictly speaking, this story does not fit into the category of parables. The parable still needs to be explained, to apply the case contained in it to the issue in question. Such, for example, is the parable of the sower, the mustard seed, etc. No explanation is required here. The Lord simply takes a very possible case, the instructiveness of which is clear to one and all, and makes this case a lesson of true mercy. This, so to speak, is an approximate story about what true love for one’s neighbor consists of. Another question. Isn't the conversation with a lawyer the same thing in the Evangelist Luke and in Matthew (Matthew 22:35 et seq.; cf. Mark 12:28 et seq.)? No, these are completely different events. They differ in time, place, occasion and the very person citing the passage from Scripture, as well as in some other details of the description. Luke 10:38. Continuing their journey, He came to a certain village; here a woman named Martha received Him into her home; "Continuing the journey". Whether this happened during the Lord’s journey to Jerusalem for the Passover of Passion or even earlier, nothing can be said with certainty. Also, Luke does not say what kind of village it was where Martha and Mary lived. If, indeed, this was on the way to Jerusalem, then one can see here an indication of Bethany, where Lazarus lived (cf. John 11:1, 12:1 et seq.). Obviously, in the source that Evangelist Luke used here, neither the name of the village nor the name of the owner of the house, Lazarus, was indicated. Apparently, Christ was received by the sisters not even in the house of Lazarus, but in the house of Martha, who could have her own house in the same Bethany. Luke 10:39. she had a sister named Mary, who sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to His word. Martha's sister, Mary, who was staying in her house, sat at the feet of Christ as His disciple (Acts 22:3) and listened to Him with attention. Luke 10:40. Martha was taking care of a great treat and, approaching, said: Lord! or do you not need that my sister left me alone to serve? tell her to help me. Martha, who was busily busy preparing a meal for Christ and His apostles, who were probably with Him, did not like the fact that Mary only calmly listened to the speeches of Christ, leaving her without help in household chores, and she turned to Christ with a request - to tell Mary to help her. Luke 10:41. Jesus answered and said to her: Martha! Marfa! you care and fuss about a lot of things, The Lord, in a tone of some friendly reproach, told Martha that it was in vain that she was trying so hard to prepare a great treat. Luke 10:42. and only one thing is needed; Mary chose the good part, which will not be taken away from her. According to the word of the Lord, “only one thing” is needed, i.e. we need the same devotion to the Gospel that Mary showed, forgetting about all her household affairs when the opportunity opened up for her to listen to the teaching of Christ without restraint. Some of the ancient interpreters (for example, Theophylact) understood by “one” (ἑνός) one food, as opposed to the many dishes that Martha prepared, but such an understanding is too superficial. However, in most ancient codes the beginning of this verse reads like this: “there is a need for a little or one” (ὀλίγων δὲ χρεία ἐστιν, ἢ ἑνός). In such a reading one can indeed see an indication that “a little” (ὀλίγων) is needed for saturation, and not “a lot” (πολλὰ - verse 41). “Mary chose the good part...”. Best reading: “for Mary...” The Lord bases His indication that “only one thing is needed” on the fact that Mary, in fact, chose for herself what should have been chosen: her part is good (ἀγαθή), which, however, does not mean that Martha’s zeal deserves condemnation, but only shows that Mary’s deed is predominantly a good deed and that she will be allowed to hear Christ after. Or - and this can be interpreted - what Mary gains through this hearing will remain in her eternal property, which will not be taken away from her under any circumstances. Many interpreters do not attach a historical character to the story of the Evangelist Luke about the message of the 70 apostles on the grounds that this is not mentioned in the other Gospels. This story, says, for example, Ewald, is of later origin: with the gradual disappearance of the 12 apostles, other companions of Christ acquired authority, and it was they who were assigned the same powers in relation to preaching and miracles that the 12 apostles received much earlier. But the silence of other evangelists and other later writers about this institution of the 70 is explained by the fact that it was not a permanent institution: the 70 were only supposed to prepare the people for the acceptance of Christ, who was then walking through various cities and villages to Jerusalem. Some interpreters (for example, Trench) strongly insist that the lawyer did not have such hidden, malicious intent. To tempt means, according to Trench, simply to test. This is how God tempts a person in order to, through testing, reveal to him the secrets of his own heart, in order to reveal the good qualities of a person and strengthen them. The lawyer simply wanted to experience the knowledge of Christ, to measure the depth of it (Trench. “The Parables of Jesus Christ,” 2nd ed., pp. 259–260). These considerations are very unfounded. Is it possible for a person to attribute something that is unique to God? And why on earth would the Evangelist Luke needlessly use such a dubious expression about the lawyer? That is, approximately 8 g of silver. – Approx. ed. You might be interested in: