5.
|
The blind...the lame. who hitherto had also been
excluded from the temple: 2 Sam.5:8.
|
|
The dead. The word is plural. Yet up to this point the
gospels have mentioned specifically only the son of rhe widow of Nain.
|
6.
|
Not offended in me. Others who were not: 1 Kgs. 19:10;
Jer. 20:7; Lk. 24:21. Those who were: Mt. 13:57; 26:31; 24:10; Jn. 6:53; 15:6;
Rom. 9:32, 33; 1 Cor. 1:23; 2:14.
|
8.
|
In king’s houses; eg. 2 Sam. 1:24;
13:19.
|
12.
|
Take it by force. For the idea, see Jn. 6:15; 10:12,
28, 29. In Study 138 the same saying (Lk. 16:16) will be found to carry a very
similar meaning.
|
13.
|
The prophets and the law. Why this inversion of the
familiar phrase? Because emphasis here is on John the prophet?
|
14.
|
Elias is without the usual Gk. definite article, thus
meaning: an Elijah prophet, one like him; cp. 17:10-13. But not Elijah in
person: Jn. 1:21. “This is Elias” also carries the implication:
“And therefore I am ‘He that should come’ after him”.
|
16.
|
This generation. It is sometimes argued that this
introduction requires a reverse interpretation of the parable from that given in
the text: John and Jesus as the complainers who refuse to conform to the wishes
of the others (the Pharisees). But this does violence to the spirit of the
parable.
|
18.
|
They say. Gk: they keep on saying.
|
|
He hath a devil. Soon after this they ran a campaign of
this sort against Jesus also: 12:24; Jn. 7:20; 8:48; 10:20.
|
19.
|
ls. 28:7-14 has a parallel to this situation.
|
|
Wisdom is justified of her children. Alternative
interpretations: (a) ‘You will see that John and I (Jesus) turn out to be
right, and yourselves wrong’, (b) ‘You may judge John and myself by
the quality of our disciples (children)’.
|