Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 1:79
To give light to them that sit in darkness and [in] the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
79. in the shadow of death ] The Hebrew Tsalmaveth. Job 10:21; Job 38:17; Psa 23:4; Psa 107:10; Isa 9:2; Mat 4:16, &c.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
To give light … – See the notes at Mat 4:16.
To guide our feet … – The figure in these verses is taken from travelers, who, being overtaken by night, know not what to do, and who wait patiently for the morning light, that they may know which way to go. So man wandered. So he became benighted. So he sat in the shadow of death. So he knew not which way to go until the Sun of righteousness arose, and then the light shone brightly on his way, and the road was open to the promised land of rest – to heaven.
This song of Zechariah is exceedingly beautiful. It expresses with elegance the great points of the plan of redemption, and the mercy of God in providing that plan. That mercy is great. It is worthy of praise – of our highest, loftiest songs of thanksgiving; for we were in the shadow of death – sinful, wretched, wandering – and the light arose, the gospel came, and people may rejoice in hope of eternal life.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Here Zacharias showeth us the end why God visited us with his Son, the Branch, the Light, the Dayspring, the Sun of righteousness. Men were in the darkness of sin and ignorance, dead in trespasses and sins, at war and enmity with God; Christ came to give them the light of gospel revelations, the light of spiritual comfort and salvation, to purchase peace, and to direct them how to walk that they might have peace with God, and at last enter into peace. This he did to the Jews first, then to the Gentiles: see Isa 9:1,2; 60:1,19.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
79. (Compare Isa 9:2;Mat 4:13-17). “That St.Luke, of all the Evangelists, should have obtained and recorded theseinspired utterances of Zacharias and Maryis in accordance with hischaracter and habits, as indicated in Lu1:1-4” [WEBSTERand WILKINSON].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
To give light to them that sit in darkness,…. God’s elect among the Jews, who were not only in a state of unregeneracy, which is a state of darkness, ignorance, and unbelief; but in the darkness of the legal dispensation, and at this time under more than ordinary darkness and ignorance; having lost the knowledge of the righteousness of God, and of the spirituality of his law, the true sense of the Scriptures, and right notions of the Messiah; being led by blind guides, the Scribes and Pharisees;
and, were as it were also,
in the shadow of death; in a state seemingly irrecoverable, when Christ, the great light arose, and shone upon them; and communicated spiritual light, life, and heat unto them; see Isa 9:2 compared with Mt 4:13 though Christ is also a light, to lighten his chosen ones among the Gentiles, Lu 2:32 but the Jews seem chiefly to be intended here:
to guide our feet into the way of peace; which we knew not: not that he came to teach us how to make our peace with God, but to make peace for us, by the blood of his cross; and so by his Spirit and word, lead us into the true way of enjoying spiritual peace here, and eternal peace hereafter.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
To shine upon (). First aorist active infinitive of (liquid verb). An old verb to give light, to shine upon, like the sun or stars. See also Acts 27:20; Titus 2:11; Titus 3:4.
The shadow of death ( ). See Ps 107:10, where darkness and shadow of death are combined as here. Cf. also Isa 9:1. See on Mt 4:16. To guide ( ). Genitive of the articular infinitive of purpose. The light will enable them in the dark to see how to walk in a straight path that leads to “the way of peace.” We are still on that road, but so many stumble for lack of light, men and nations.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
To guide [] . From eujquv, straight. Wyc. has dress, which is formed through the old French dresser, to arrange, from the Latin dirigere, to set in a straight line, draw up. Hence the military term dress for arranging a line.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “To give light to them,” (epiphanai tois) “To shine upon those,” light of truth, light of joy, light of hope, and light of righteousness, to enlighten them, Isa 9:2; Isa 49:9.
2) “That sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,” (en skotes kai skia tanatou kathemenois) “Who are continually sitting in darkness and in a death shadow,” Isa 42:6-7, steeped in ceremonialism and ritualism, and subjects of the Gentile Roman Government, so deeply that they rejected Him, Mat 5:20; Joh 1:11-12; Mar 7:3-13.
3) “To guide our feet into the way of peace,” (tou kateuthunai tous podas hemon eis hodon eirenes) “To guide our feet into a pathway of peace,” Isa 9:1-2; Mat 4:13-17; Isa 60:1-3; Joh 8:12. The light is for guiding, as well as for revealing and reviving, and Jesus was all this, as the “light” of the world, Joh 1:4; Joh 1:9.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
79. That he might give light to those who were sitting in darkness As to light and darkness, there are similar modes of expression in Isaiah: such as,
“
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined,” (Isa 9:1😉
and in many other passages. These words show, that out of Christ there is no life-giving light in the world, but every thing is covered by the appalling darkness of death. Thus, in another passage, Isaiah testifies that this privilege belongs peculiarly to the church alone.
“
Behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee,” (Isa 60:2.)
But how could it be said that the Israelites, on whose hearts the Lord always shone by faith, were sitting in the shadow of death? I reply, the godly, who lived under the law were surrounded on every side by the darkness of death, and beheld at a distance, in the coming of Christ, the light that cheered and preserved them from being overwhelmed by present death. Zacharias may have had in view the wretched condition of his own age. But it is a general truth, that on all the godly, who had ever lived, or who were afterwards to live, there arose in the coming of Christ a light to impart life: for it even diffused life over the dead. To sit is of the same import as to lie: (84) and so Isaiah enjoins the Church, “Arise, for thy light is come,” (Isa 60:1.)
To guide our feet By this expression Zacharias points out, that the highest perfection of all excellence and happiness is to be found in Christ alone. The word Peace might indeed be taken in its literal sense, which would not be unsuitable: for the illumination brought by Christ tends to pacify the minds of men. But as the Hebrew word שלום, peace, denotes every kind of prosperity, Zacharias intended, I doubt not, to represent Christ as the author of perfect blessedness, that we may not seek the smallest portion of happiness elsewhere, but may rest on Christ alone, from a full conviction that in him we are entirely and completely happy. To this purpose are those words of Isaiah,
“
The sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory,” (Isa 60:19.)
But if the mere sight of his Son, while still a child, led Zacharias to discourse in so lofty a strain respecting the grace and power of Christ, before he was born, are not they so much the more ungrateful, who, now that Christ has died, and risen, and ascended to heaven, and sat down at his Father’s right hand, speak disrespectfully of him and of his power, to which the Holy Spirit bore testimony, while he was still in his mother’s womb? We must bear in mind what I have already mentioned, that Zacharias spake not from himself, but that the Spirit of God directed his tongue.
And the child grew This is added by Luke for continuing the thread of the history. First, he mentions that John became strong in spirit: which implies that the great and uncommon excellence of the child gave proof that there dwelt in him a Heavenly Spirit. Next, he tells us, that John remained unknown in the deserts till the day of his showing, that is, till the day on which the Lord had pur-posed to bring him into public view. Hence we conclude, that John, though he was fully aware of his calling, made no advances before the appointed time, but awaited the call of God.
(84) “ Estre assis emporte autant comme estre couch, ou veautre.”— “To sit is of the same import as to be lying or wallowing.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(79) To give light to them that sit in darkness.The words are an echo of those of Isa. 9:2, which we have already met with in Mat. 4:16, where see Note. Here they carry on the thought of the sunrise lighting up the path of those who had sat all night long in the dark ravine, and whose feet were now guided into the way of peace, that word including, as it always did, with the Hebrew, every form of blessedness.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
79. To them that sit in darkness The image is here completed. The people are sitting in sullen darkness, the darkness even of death, and the dayspring pours down its splendour from the eastern sky upon them.
Guide our feet into the way of peace The sitters in darkness have wandered far from the paths of peace, and the dayspring from on high reveals to them the true way.
‘So breaks on the traveller, faint and astray,
The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn.”
On this song of Zacharias, and on this chapter generally, we may remark:
1 . On the very eve of the Messiah’s appearing the speakers are still in the dimness of the Jewish dispensation as to the exact character of the Messiah and his reign. Had these prophetic passages been, as sceptics represent, composed after the crucifixion, or even after the destruction of Jerusalem, the writer would have suited the details to the then existing facts.
2 . All the elements which are here ascribed to the Messiah’s kingdom are really in its very nature and substance, and are to be developed in its history from the beginning and in future ages. Mercy, holiness, truth, light, and peace are its inmost principles, and to those are given, in the present and future, power to triumph in the world.
3 . The Messiah now truly lives and reigns in this kingdom. He lives and reigns personally and in the body. He lives and reigns as personally and corporeally as if he reigned visibly, and as if he now sat upon a golden throne in the city of Jerusalem. He sways the sceptre of the world though the world be in rebellion. Without visible manifestation or show of physical or mechanical power, and allowing the principles of probation and free-agency to work out their problem, he is ever ruling and overruling the affairs of men in order to the development and ultimate prevalence of the reign of truth and righteousness in the earth, in order that millions on millions may be redeemed; to the end that he shall finally “see the travail of his soul and be satisfied.”
4 . Christian scholars have always been aware that, in the narratives of the births both of John and of Jesus, there is an abundance both of events and phrases that are framed after the model of Old Testament examples. Zacharias is visited in the same manner by an angel, and with the same message, as was Abraham. Mary’s hymn is paralleled by Hannah’s upon a similar occasion. John is, like Samson, heralded by an angel before his birth, and is bound to be a Nazarite. The mythical scheme of the skeptical Strauss uses these well known facts to show that the whole story is a fabrication manufactured by the imagination of the early Christians out of these Old Testament histories, blended mythically together. His system represents the main share of gospel history to be thus constructed out of Old Testament materials. Every New Testament fact that has anything like it in the Old Testament is a plagiary and an imitation; and every event fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy is held to be invented to fit the prophecy, or to be made out of the prophecy itself. The real truth is, that the Old Testament does contain the kernel and shadows of the New. The Jewish people were a living type of a better dispensation. The prediction is verified in the fulfillment, the type in the antitype, the sacrifice in the atonement, the shadow in the substance.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Luk 1:79. Them that sit in darkness, &c. These phrases, with peculiar propriety, describe the ignorant and miserable state of the Gentile world, and perhaps the former part of the verse may refer to them. But as Christ’s preaching to the Jews in Galilee; (for it was almost entirely to Jews that he preached) is said, Mat 4:14-16 to be an accomplishment of Isa 9:1-2 to which Zacharias here probably refers, we are not to confine the sense to the Gentiles only; for indeed the sad character and circumstances of the Jews at this time, as described by Josephus, do well suit the representation here made.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Ver. 79. That sit in darkness ] This imports, 1. continuance; 2. content.
To guide our feet ] The superstitious pagans thought that their goddess Vibilia kept them in their right way when they travelled: but we have a better guide to God. Arnob. advers. Gent. lib, 4.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
79. ] See reff. Care must be taken on the one hand not to degrade the expressions of this song of praise into mere anticipations of temporal prosperity, nor, on the other, to find in it (except in so far as they are involved in the inner and deeper sense of the words, unknown save to the Spirit who prompted them) the minute doctrinal distinctions of the writings of St. Paul. It is the expression of the aspirations and hopes of a pious Jew, waiting for the salvation of the Lord, finding that salvation brought near, and uttering his thankfulness in Old Testament language, with which he was familiar, and at the same time under prophetic influence of the Holy Spirit. That such a song should be inconsistent with dogmatic truth, is impossible: that it should unfold it minutely, is in the highest degree improbable .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
give light to = shine upon.
the shadow of death. A Hebraism. Zalmaveth. Job 10:21; Job 38:17. Psa 23:4; Psa 107:10. Isa 9:2. Mat 4:16, &c.
guide = direct. Wycliffe has “dress”, through the O. French dresser = to arrange, still preserved as an English military term.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
79.] See reff. Care must be taken on the one hand not to degrade the expressions of this song of praise into mere anticipations of temporal prosperity, nor, on the other, to find in it (except in so far as they are involved in the inner and deeper sense of the words, unknown save to the Spirit who prompted them) the minute doctrinal distinctions of the writings of St. Paul. It is the expression of the aspirations and hopes of a pious Jew, waiting for the salvation of the Lord, finding that salvation brought near, and uttering his thankfulness in Old Testament language, with which he was familiar, and at the same time under prophetic influence of the Holy Spirit. That such a song should be inconsistent with dogmatic truth, is impossible: that it should unfold it minutely, is in the highest degree improbable.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 1:79. , so as to give light to [to shine in full manifestation on]) Again comp. Psa 132:17 [I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed].–, them that sit) Comp. Mat 4:15, note on the passage of Isaiah quoted there.- , in darkness and the shadow of death) These are conjoined as their opposites, light and life.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
give: Luk 2:32, Isa 9:2, Isa 42:7, Isa 42:16, Isa 49:6, Isa 49:9, Isa 60:1-3, Mat 4:16, Joh 1:9, Joh 8:12, Joh 9:5, Joh 12:46, Act 26:18, Eph 5:8, 1Th 5:4, 1Th 5:5, 1Jo 1:5-7
and: Job 3:5, Job 10:22, Psa 23:4, Psa 44:19, Psa 107:10, Psa 107:14, Jer 2:6
to guide: Psa 25:8-10, Psa 25:12, Psa 85:10-13, Pro 3:17, Pro 8:20, Isa 48:17, Isa 48:22, Isa 57:19-21, Isa 59:8, Jer 6:16, Mat 11:28, Mat 11:29, Rom 3:17
Reciprocal: Exo 25:37 – give Lev 24:2 – the lamps 2Sa 23:4 – as the light 1Ki 11:36 – David 2Ch 21:7 – as he promised Job 12:22 – bringeth Psa 18:28 – my God Psa 31:3 – lead Isa 2:5 – come ye Amo 5:8 – and turneth Mic 7:8 – when I sit Zec 14:6 – not Mat 2:2 – his Luk 2:14 – and Joh 1:4 – the life Joh 9:39 – that they Joh 14:27 – Peace I leave Act 16:17 – the way Rom 2:10 – and peace Rom 2:19 – a light Eph 2:14 – our Phi 4:7 – the peace 1Pe 2:9 – who 1Pe 3:11 – seek 2Pe 1:19 – a light 1Jo 2:8 – the darkness Rev 2:28 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE WAY OF PEACE
To guide our feet into the way of peace.
Luk 1:79
The Lord Jesus Christ:
I. Brought peace.It was the burden of the angels Christmas songon earth peace.
II. Made peace.He made peace through the blood of His cross (Col 1:20). Peace with God. Therefore, says St. Paul, speaking for all believers, He is our peace (Eph 2:14). Peace was His dying legacy: Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.
III. Imparts peace.The living Christ comes, His hands full of gifts; among those priceless gifts, peace, perfect peace!the very peace of God which passeth all understanding.
Rev. F. Harper.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
9
Light and darkness are figurative terms to represent truth and error. The teaching of Jesus was to show mankind the way of peace.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 1:79. To give light. The purpose of the visiting. The figure contained in the word day-spring, is carried out.
To them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death. This describes the condition of Israel, and also of the world at large. They were sitting, remaining, abiding, in darkness, as opposed to the light of divine truth, and the shadow of death (comp. Isa 9:2; Mat 4:16); in a darkness, in which death reigns, deprived of the light of spiritual life. Death is personified as casting a shadow. The Scriptural figure of darkness usually involves the two thoughts of spiritual ignorance and death, just as light includes the light of divine truth and life, the former being the sphere of the latter.
To guide our feet into the way of peace. This is the end of giving light, and thus of the visit of the dayspring. This figure suggests walking in the light (Eph 5:8),as opposed to sitting in darkness. As the word peace in the Old Testament is generally used to sum up divine blessings, a sense which receives even greater fulness in the New Testament (see on chap. Luk 2:14), it may be well said, that the hymn concludes with a boundless prospect into the still partially hidden future.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Luk 1:79. To give light to them that sit in darkness The Messiah at his coming would enlighten with the knowledge of salvation the Gentile nations, who had long lived in ignorance and wickedness, the cause of death. To guide our feet into the way of peace And he would guide the feet, even of the Jews, into the way of finding peace with God, peace of mind, and true happiness, by making them more perfectly acquainted with the method of salvation, and the will of God concerning them. Such phrases as darkness and the shadow of death, describe with peculiar propriety the ignorant and miserable state of the Gentile world: and, probably, the former clause might be intended principally of them. But as Christs preaching to the Jews in Galilee is said, Mat 4:14-16, to be an accomplishment of Isa 9:1-2, to which Zacharias here seems to refer, we must not confine the sense of it merely to the Gentiles; for indeed the sad character and circumstances of the Jews at this time too well suited the representation here made. Such are the elevated strains in which this pious man, under the extraordinary influence of the Holy Ghost, described the great blessings which mankind were to enjoy by the coming of the seed promised to Adam, to Abraham, and to David.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1:79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and [in] the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the {q} way of peace.
(q) Into the way which leads us to true happiness.