Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 24:17
And he said unto them, What manner of communications [are] these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
17. that ye have one to another ] Literally, “ cast to and fro.” and are sad
What manner of communications … – What is the subject of your conversation? What is it that has so much affected your minds? They were deeply affected in the recollection of the death of Jesus; and, as became all Christians, they were conversing about him, and were sad at the overwhelming events that had come upon them. Not that he, from whom the secrets of no hearts are hidden, did not know what they were discoursing about, but that he had a mind to hear them repeated from them, that from their repetition of them he might take the better advantage to instruct them. 17-24. communications, &c.Thewords imply the earnest discussion that had appeared in their manner. And he said unto them,…. That is, “Jesus”, as the Persic version, or “our Lord”, as the Ethiopic version, expresses it:
what manner of communications are these, that ye have one to another, as ye walk? what is the subject of your discourse; what is it your conversation one with another turns upon in your journey?
and are sad? what melancholy story are you telling to one another, which causes such sadness of countenance, and dejection of mind? for Christ by their countenances and gestures, as the shaking of their heads, and lifting up and wringing of their hands, could easily discern as man, as well as know as God, that they were full of sorrow and heaviness, and which were occasioned and increased by what they were talking of.
That you have with another ( ). – is an old verb and means to throw in turn, back and forth like a ball, from one to another, a beautiful picture of conversation as a game of words. Only here in the N.T. They stood still (). First aorist passive of , intransitive. They stopped. Looking sad (). This is the correct text. It is an old adjective from , gloomy and , countenance. Only here in the N.T. Ye have [] . Lit., throw back and forth; exchange. “Discussed a doubt and tossed it to and fro” (Tennyson). And are sad [] . Only here and Mt 6:16, on which see note. The best texts put the interrogation point after walk, add kai ejstaqhsan, and render, and they stood still, looking sad. So Rev.
1)“And he said unto them,” (eipen de pros autous) “Then he said directly and personally to them,” to the two conversing disciples, Luk 24:13-14; Mar 16:12.
2)“What manner of communications are these,” (tines hoi logoi houtoi) “Just what do you mean by these words,” this conversation, in which they were so intensely engaged, Luk 24:14-15.
3) “That ye have one to another,” (hous antiballete pros allelous) “Which you all exchange directly with each other,” in agreement that some supernatural event had taken place, but they had not realized just what had happened, Luk 24:21
4) “As ye walk and are sad?” (peripatountes kai estathesan skuthropoi) “While you are walking? And they stood (stopped and stood) sad-faced,” despondent in their countenance, with faces of disappointment, frustration, and uncertainty. He still cares for the sad, and the perplexed, Luk 24:21; Heb 4:15-16.
17. What are those discourses which you hold with each other? What was at that time, as we perceive, done openly by Christ, we daily feel to be accomplished in ourselves in a secret manner; which is, that of his own accord he approaches us unperceived for the purpose of instructing us. Now from the reply of Cleopas it is still more evident that, as I have lately mentioned, though they were in doubt and uncertainty about the resurrection of Christ, yet they had in their hearts a reverence for his doctrine, so that they were far from having any inclination to revolt. For they do not expect that Christ will anticipate them by making himself known, or that this fellow-traveler, whoever he may be, will speak of him respectfully; but, on the contrary, having but a small and obscure light, Cleopas throws out a few sparks on an unknown man, which were intended to enlighten his mind, if he were ignorant and uninformed. The name of Christ was, at that time, so generally held in hatred and detestation, that it was not safe to speak of him respectfully; but spurning from him suspicion, he calls Christ a prophet of God, and declares that he is one of his disciples. And though this designation falls greatly below the Divine Majesty of Christ, yet the commendation which he bestows, though moderate, is laudable; for Cleopas had no other intention than to procure for Christ disciples who would submit to his Gospel. It is uncertain, however, if it was through ignorance that Cleopas spoke of Christ in terms less magnificent than the case required, or if he intended to begin with first principles, which were better known, and to rise higher by degrees. Certain it is, that a little afterwards, he does not simply place Christ in the ordinary rank of prophets, but says that he and others believed him to be the redeemer.
(17) What manner of communications . . .?Literally, What are these words that ye bandy to and fro with one another?
And are sad.The adjective is the same as that used of the hypocrites in Mat. 6:16. The better MSS. make the question stop at as ye walk, and then add, And they stood sad in countenance. Over and above the authority for this reading, it has unquestionably the merit of greater dramatic vividness.
17. What manner of communications Our Saviour is suddenly nigh the disciples, and his inquiry is in that tone and style which imply that he may give relief.
Sad The word describes the expression of their countenances, sad-faced.
‘And he said to them, “What are these things that you are talking to each other about with one with another, as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad.’
The ‘Stranger’ then asked them what they had just been talking about. It suggested that He had been observing them for some time (as he might have done if He was slowly catching up with them). At these words they stopped, the grief apparent on their faces. We have here an indication that the account was told by someone who was there. His words had brought them to a halt, and they remembered it well.
Now it is true that a consummate storyteller might have introduced such factuality into a fictional account, but we know from the crucifixion narratives that Luke was far from seeking to do things like that. He was telling things as they were without embellishment. Thus there is no reason for thinking that it was any different here.
The conversation:
v. 17. And He said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk, and are sad?
v. 18. And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering, said unto Him, Art Thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
v. 19. And He said unto them, What things? And they said unto Him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people;
v. 20. and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and have crucified Him.
v. 21. But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel; and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done.
v. 22. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher;
v. 23. and when they found not His body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that He was alive.
v. 24. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher, and found it even so as the women had said; but Him they saw not.
The two disciples saw in Jesus only a companion by the way, and His entire manner tended to confirm this idea. He inquired of them, after the manner of a casual acquaintance, as to the matters concerning which they were exchanging ideas as they were walking along, about which they were so excited. What He already knows He wishes to hear from their own mouths, and His tone is one of genuine, sympathetic interest. The two men were deeply touched by the stranger’s kindly interest. They stood still to face the newcomer, and their faces registered the deep grief which was filling their hearts. As they thereupon resumed their journey, with Jesus in their company, one of the two, whose name was Cleopas, took it upon himself to explain to the stranger the questions which were agitating their minds. His first words express his great surprise that here was a pilgrim, probably the only one in that class, that did not know what had happened in Jerusalem during the last days. And when Jesus, to draw them out still further, interjected a surprised “What things?” both of the men eagerly explained to Him the cause of all their anxious conversation. The entire speech is true to life, as if people speaking under the stress of great excitement. They refer to important points, but do not explain them; they mix up their own hopes and fears into the narration; and the entire presentation savored of the confusion which was then prevailing in both their hearts. The facts concerning Jesus of Nazareth were making them feel so sad. For that Man had become in their midst a Prophet mighty in both word and deed, irresistibly eloquent in His preaching and incontrovertible in His miracles. Both before God and before all the people this testimony must stand. This Man the high priests and the rulers of the people had delivered to the sentence of a shameful death on the cross. He was dead; so much was certain. And here the dam of restraint almost gave way. They, the disciples, with the apostles in the lead, had cherished the fond hope, the eager expectation, that He would be the one to bring salvation to Israel, that He would deliver His people, the children of Israel, from the bondage of the Romans, and establish a temporal kingdom in Jerusalem. But now, in addition to all their shattered hopes, there is the further hard fact that this is the third day since His death. And there was another disquieting fact. Certain women from the circle of the disciples had greatly disturbed them all, had filled them with anxiety and fear, for they had been at His tomb at the break of day, and, not finding His body, they had come to the city with the news that they had seen a vision of angels, who told them that Jesus was living. Several men out of their midst had then gone out to verify the news, if possible, and they had found things just as the women had said; but Him, their Lord, they had not found. It was a sad tale of woe which the two men, with Cleopas taking the lead in the conversation, poured out into the sympathetic ears of the Savior. It showed how pitifully weak their faith still was in many respects, that their minds were even now filled with the Jewish dreams of an earthly Messiah, and that the many intimate talks, the long discourses of Jesus, had not had the proper effect. And the experience of these two disciples is repeated over and over again in our days. We Christians indeed believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. But this our faith and hope is often subject to vacillations and uncertainties. Hours of weakness, of trouble and tribulation will come, when all the things which we have learned from Scripture seem no more than a pious dream. Then it seems to us as though Jesus were dead, as though we had lost Him and His salvation out of our hearts.
Luk 24:17. As ye walk, and are sad? As ye walk?For ye are sad: see Bowyer’s Greek Testament.
Luk 24:17-18 . What are these discourses that ye in turn throw out to one another as ye walk, and are of gloomy countenance? Instead of , the address passes over into the finite verb, bringing out this characteristic more emphatically, Matthiae, 632; Khner, 675. 4. After we are not to supply (Beza). The relative clause . . . corresponds to the idea of (disputare).
. . .] Dost thou alone dwell as a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not learned , etc.? In respect of this question of surprise, it is to be considered (1) that the destiny of Jesus is so entirely the only thought in the soul of the two disciples, and appears to them now so absolutely as the only possible subject of their conversation and their sadness, that from their standpoint they instantly conclude from the question of the unknown one that he cannot at all know what has come to pass, since otherwise he would not begin by asking of what they speak and why they look sad; (2) that belongs to and ; so that thus . (there is no comma to be placed before ), taken together , constitute the ground of their question, whether it is he alone in whose experience this is the case. Hence it is wrong to take in the place of a relative. Comp. Joh 7:4
. may either mean: dwell as a stranger in Jerusalem (thus often in the LXX.; usually with , but also with the accusative, Gen 17:8 ; Exo 6:4 ), or: dwell near, at Jerusalem (Grotius, Rosenmller, and, with hesitation, Bleek; comp. Xen. De redit . i. 5; Isocr. Panegyr . 162; Thuc. iii. 93; Lucian, D. M . ii. 1); thus . would be in the dative . The former view is the usual and the correct one (comp. Heb 11:9 ; Act 7:6 ; Act 13:17 ; 1Pe 1:17 ; 1Pe 2:11 ), since the disciples might recognise the unknown, perchance, as a foreign pilgrim to the feast (even from his dialect), but not as a dweller in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Ungrammatically (not to be supported by passages such as Gen 24:37 ; Num 20:15 ; Psa 15:1 ; Psa 120:6 , where the LXX. have translated and by terms more specific than the original), Theophylact, also Zeger and others, have taken as simply to dwell; and Castalio, Vatablus, Clarius, and Kuinoel have taken it in the figurative sense of and hospitem esse: “de iis, qui quid agatur ignorant, art thou then alone so strange to Jerusalem?”
17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
Ver. 17. That ye have one to another ] Gr. that ye toss one to another, as a ball is tossed between two or more. , tu cum duo pila lusitaut.
And are sad ] Christ loves not to see his saints sad; he questions them as Joseph did his prisoners, “Wherefore look ye so sadly today?” Gen 40:7 , and as the king did Nehemiah, Luk 2:2 .
17. ] He had apparently been walking with them some little time before this was said.
implies to dispute with some earnestness: but there is no blame implied in the words. Possibly, though both were sad, they may have taken different views: and in the answer of Cleopas we have that of the one who was most disposed to abandon all hope.
Luk 24:17 . : an expressive word (here only in N.T.), confirming the impression of animated and even heated conversation made by . It points to an exchange of words, not simply, but with a certain measure of excitement. As Pricaeus expresses it: “fervidius aliquanto et commotius, ut fieri amat ubi de rebus noves mirisque disserentes nullamque expediendi nos viam invenientes, altercamur”. The question of the stranger quietly put to the two wayfarers is not without a touch of kindly humour. , : this well-attested reading gives a good graphic sense = “they stood still, looking sad” (R. V [203] ). A natural attitude during the first moments of surprise at the interruption of their talk by an unknown person, and in a puzzling tone.
[203] Revised Version.
communications. Greek. Plural of logos. See note on Mar 9:32.
have = exchange. Only here in N.T. to. Greek. pros. App-104.
and are sad. According to T Tr. 1 H R (not the Syriac) the question ends at “walk”, and reads on: “and they stood still, sad in countenance”.
17.] He had apparently been walking with them some little time before this was said.
implies to dispute with some earnestness: but there is no blame implied in the words. Possibly, though both were sad, they may have taken different views:-and in the answer of Cleopas we have that of the one who was most disposed to abandon all hope.
Luk 24:17. , He said) It is the part of wisdom, to pass with ease into profitable conversation. Joh 4:7-8 [Jesus taking occasion from the well, and His request to the woman of Samaria for a drink, to pass to the subject of the living water]; Act 8:30 [Philip and the Eunuch reading Isaiah].
and are: Eze 9:4-6, Joh 16:6, Joh 16:20-22
Reciprocal: Gen 40:7 – Wherefore Mar 16:10 – as Luk 5:35 – when Joh 20:13 – why
7
The changed “form” of Jesus did not make him appear as any unusual creature, for there is no indication that his speaking to them confused them.
Luk 24:17. What communications? Some earnest disputing is meant, though no blame is implied. This implies also that He walked with them for a time before He thus spoke.
And they stood still, looking sad. This is the reading now generally accepted. It suggests that the interruption was unwelcome, as does the response of Cleopas (Luk 24:18). The other reading may be taken as two questions: as ye walk? and why are ye sad? or rendered as in the E. V. A briefer reading gives: as ye walk (being) sad?
Vers. 17-19 a. Beginning of the Conversation.
Ver. 17. Jesus generally interrogates before instructing. As a good teacher, in order to be heard, He begins by causing his auditors to speak (Joh 1:38).
The Alex. reading at the end of Luk 24:17, allowed by Tischendorf (8th ed.): and stood sad, borders on the absurd.
Ver. 18. belongs to both verbs, and , together. They take Jesus for one of those numerous strangers who, like themselves, are temporarily sojourning at Jerusalem. An inhabitant of the city would not have failed to know these things; and in their view, to know them was to be engrossed with them.
Jesus’ question apparently so shocked the two disciples that they stopped walking. It opened a wound in their hearts and renewed their sorrow. Cleopas’ casual comment tells the reader that Jesus was the talk of Jerusalem. Everyone there, residents and pilgrims alike, knew about Him and what had happened to Him. Luke may have mentioned Cleopas by name because some of his readers knew him or knew about him. According to Christian tradition he was Jesus’ uncle, Joseph’s brother, and he became a leader of the Jerusalem church. [Note: Eusebius, 3:11; cf. Ellis, p. 894.] He could have been the husband of Mary, the wife of Clopas, a variant spelling of the same name, who was present at Jesus’ crucifixion (Joh 19:25). However that may have been a different man. There was a tradition in the early Byzantine church that Luke was the second, unnamed disciple. [Note: For defense of this view, see Wenham, pp. 29-32.]
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
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Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
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Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)