Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 10:22
All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and [he] to whom the Son will reveal [him.]
22. All things are delivered to me of my Father ] Rather, were delivered to me by, cf. Luk 20:14 . This entire verse is one of those in which the teaching of the Synoptists (Mat 28:18) comes into nearest resemblance to that of St John, which abounds in such passages (Joh 1:18; Joh 3:35; Joh 5:26-27; Joh 6:44; Joh 6:46; Joh 14:6-9;Joh 17:1-2; 1Jn 5:20). In the same way we find this view assumed in St Paul’s earlier Epistles (e.g. 1Co 15:24 ; 1Co 15:27), and magnificently developed in the Epistles of the Captivity (Php 2:9; Eph 1:21-22).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 22. The Codex Alexandrinus, several other very ancient MSS., and some ancient versions, as well as the margin of our own, begin this verse with, And turning to his disciples, he said. But as this clause begins Lu 10:23, it is not likely that it was originally in both. Griesbach has left these words out of the text, and Professor WHITE says, Certissime delenda, “These words should most assuredly be erased.”
Ver. 22. All things are delivered to me] See Clarke on Mt 11:27.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
All things are delivered to me of my Father,…. In some ancient copies, and in the Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic versions, before these words, are read, “and turning to his disciples he said, all things”, c.
and no man knoweth who the Son is what is his name, his nature, his perfections and glory; and how he is the Son of God, his only begotten Son:
but the Father; who begat him, and whose own, and proper Son he is:
and who the Father is; what are his perfections, purposes, grace, greatness, mind, and will:
but the Son; who is of him, and lay in his bosom:
and he to whom the Son will reveal him: in himself, by his Spirit;
[See comments on Mt 11:27].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Knoweth who the Son is ( ). Knows by experience, . Here Mt 11:27 has (fully knows) and simply (the Son) instead of the “who” () clause. So also in “who the Father is” ( ). But the same use and contrast of “the Father,” “the Son.” in both Matthew and Luke, “an aerolite from the Johannean heaven” (Hase). No sane criticism can get rid of this Johannine bit in these Gospels written long before the Fourth Gospel was composed. We are dealing here with the oldest known document about Christ (the Logia) and the picture is that drawn in the Fourth Gospel (see my The Christ of the Logia). It is idle to try to whittle away by fantastic exegesis the high claims made by Jesus in this passage. It is an ecstatic prayer in the presence of the Seventy under the rapture of the Holy Spirit on terms of perfect equality and understanding between the Father and the Son in the tone of the priestly prayer in Joh 17. We are justified in saying that this prayer of supreme Fellowship with the Father in contemplation of final victory over Satan gives us a glimpse of the prayers with the Father when the Son spent whole nights on the mountain alone with the Father. Here is the Messianic consciousness in complete control and with perfect confidence in the outcome. Here as in Mt 11:27 by the use of
willeth to reveal him ( ). The Son claims the power to reveal the Father “to whomsoever he wills” ( , indefinite relative and present subjunctive of , to will, not the future indicative). This is divine sovereignty most assuredly. Human free agency is also true, but it is full divine sovereignty in salvation that is here claimed along with possession (, timeless aorist passive indicative) of all power from the Father. Let that supreme claim stand.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Are delivered [] . See on Mt 11:27.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “All things are delivered to me of my Father” (panta moi paredothe hupo tou patros mou) “All things were delivered to me by my Father,” Joh 3-35; Mat 28:18; Heb 2:8. All things in the plan and execution of the redemption and restitution of all things to the Father, Act 3:21.
2) “And no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father,” (kai oudeis ginoskei tis estin ho huios ei me ho pater) “And no one knows who the Son is except, the Father,” 1Ti 3:16; Joh 3:35.
3) “And who the Father is, but the Son,” (kai tis estin ho pater ei me ho hulos) “And no one knows who the Father is except the Son,” or can come to know the Father except through the Son, Joh 6:44, who alone knows Him perfectly.
4) “And he to whom the Son will reveal him,” (kai ho, ean bouletai huios apokalupsai) “And to whomever the Son is disposed (wills) to reveal or disclose Him.” Jesus revealed the moral nature of God through the person of His being, His conduct, His teaching, and His death on the cross, as “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,” 2Co 5:18.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(22) All things are delivered to me.The marginal reading, which prefixes And turning to His disciples to this verse instead of the next, can hardly be regarded as more than a transcribers error.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. All things Thus far the face of Jesus has been toward the face of the Seventy the babes for whose faith he has been thanking his Father; but now, as indicated by the words turning to his disciples, (which, though omitted from the English translation, are admitted by the best editions of the Greek Testament,) he so turns as to address the disciples in connection with the Seventy; and then, at Luk 10:23, he so completely turns around and from the Seventy as to address the disciples privately; that is, separately.
This present verse expresses the divine correspondence between Father and Son which had been implied by the thanksgiving of the previous verse. See notes on Mat 11:25-27.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“All things have been delivered to me of my Father, and no one knows who the Son is, save the Father, and who the Father is, save the Son, and he to whoever the Son wills to reveal him.”
In His prayer/prophecy He now reveals that the Father has put all things in His hands, including full knowledge about Himself, so that He can communicate it to others in as far as they can receive it. All things absolutely have been delivered to Him, that is transferred to Him for Him to apply (compare the use in Mat 28:18). This can only be because He is Himself God, for none but God could know and transfer the fullness of the knowledge of God. This includes what the Father knows about the Son, about His very being, as well as what the Son knows about the Father, and about His very being. Note how this is based on the argument that a natural father and son can fully know each other in ways that no other can. That is because there is a unique affinity between them because they are ‘of one blood’. Because they are uniquely of the same stock they have a knowledge of each other that no other can share. In the same way the Father and the Son are ‘of one spirit’. They have a unique relationship that no other can share, apart from the Holy Spirit. They are the divine threeness in unity, of the same nature and essence. So the full knowledge of the situation of what each is within the Godhead is available to Him for Him to deliver to His disciples. But He has been able to reveal it to His disciples because the Father has been pleased to do so. The revelation has therefore come to them from both Father and Son.
Note that the Father’s knowledge of the Son is equated with the Son’s knowledge of the Father. That Jesus had the same knowledge of the Father that the Father had of Him puts Him at the same level of omniscience as the Father. Such a conclusion is unavoidable. There is therefore here a full revelation of His Godhead. But also, on top of that, there is the confirmation that it is known to His disciples, even if they cannot put it into words.
So in His relationship with His Father Jesus has a knowledge greater than that of the fathers, greater than of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, than of Moses and the prophets. He has a direct source of knowledge, even though it is also partly communicated through the Scriptures.
, ‘All things have been delivered into My hand.’ Compare here Joh 3:35. ‘The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.’ There it includes the Spirit Who is not given to Him by measure, and the very words of God, and the result is that He offers eternal life, life under the Kingly Rule of God, to those who believe in Him. In this passage also He has the Holy Spirit in Whom He rejoices, and the knowledge of His Father which He can pass on to His own.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
(22) All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son; and he to whom the Son will reveal him.
The subject contained in this verse, short as it is, is so infinitely great and sublime, that though I could not dare to pass by it altogether unnoticed, yet I know not how to presume the offering my faint and imperfect observations upon it. I shall, indeed, but barely touch on the deep things contained in it; and no farther than may, under the Lord’s teaching, lead the Reader’s mind, with my own, to the consideration of the very sweet and precious instructions which arise out of it.
The all things delivered to Christ, of his Father, is a comprehensive expression, to denote the office and authority of Christ, as mediator. This part I do not allude to in respect to the depth of mystery contained in this verse; for though such, is the infinite fullness of Christ, that neither men nor angels can have capacities competent to conceive, yet this is not the most wonderful doctrine which this verse calls the church to contemplate. No man knoweth who the Son is but the Father: and, in like manner, who the Father is but the Son. Here are depths indeed of mystery. We are told by the Evangelist John, that no man hath seen God at any time , but that the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him, Joh 1:18 . So that nothing can be more plain, than that it became impossible for the creation of God to know anything of Jehovah, in his three-fold character of persons, but by the immediate act of the Son, begotten into his mediatorial character, God-Man in one person, thereby to reveal him. By this voluntary act of the Son of God, and by this humbling himself, in order to make this revelation through the medium of the manhood, he hath done that, which, without this union of nature, never could have been done. And by this act, he hath brought in a new glory to the Godhead, in that his creatures have now a knowledge of the Father, Son, and Spirit; and which opens to the felicity of God’s intelligent creation to all eternity. Our Lord’s expression is striking: No man knoweth who the Son is but the Father: that is, as Son of God. It is God only, that can know God. For though the persons in the Godhead are revealed, sufficiently plain in proof, as articles of faith, yet none knoweth how the Son is Son but the Father. It is the Father only who knoweth the Son, as a person of equal dignity and glory with himself. And so, in like manner, No man knoweth who the Father is save the Son. The personal apprehension of each is to each, Father, Son, and Spirit, can be known only as such in their essential nature and Godhead, by each other. And when Jesus adds, and he to whom the Son will reveal him: that is, in making such a revelation of him, as he came purposely to make, and the enlightened soul, by grace, is capable of receiving.
Reader! ponder over the wonderful mystery; and, while looking into the vast depth, rather feel astonishment at the condescending grace of the Lord, in that we are enabled to apprehend so much, instead of marvelling that we know no more. It is very blessed that the Son of God hath come to make known such stupendous things, which, without his having taken upon him our nature, and in that nature made such gracious revelations of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, never could have been discovered to all eternity. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift!
Though I passed by the consideration of the all things, delivered by the Father to Christ, at the opening of this verse, in order to attend the more particularly to the momentous doctrine contained in the latter part of it, yet let not the Reader overlook either the sweetness or the fullness of the blessed expression. Jesus, in his Mediator-character, here considers himself as the Great and Almighty Trustee of heaven; and that he is thus full in himself, and by the Father’s appointment, in order to give out, in all the departments of nature, providence, grace, and glory, to the supply of all. And Christ’s invitation is founded upon his ability, see Mat 11:27-30 . So that as all the promises, all grace, all the blessings of the covenant, all government; in short, the whole, and every part of supply for all things, can only be found in Christ; there, can be no possibility of obtaining anything either for time or eternity, but in him. And what tends to endear this state of things still more, is, that as all things are delivered from the Father to the Son, in seeking all things from Christ, we honour the Father by seeking for the Son. For as the Father puts honour upon Christ, in thus constituting him universal and everlasting Lord, so every poor needy creature, who looks by faith to Christ for his supply, puts honour upon him also. Reader! think of this in all approaches to Christ: and depend upon it, that whenever your poor heart is made joyful in Christ, and enriched by supplies from him, Christ is glorified in you, in giving out of his fullness, and gets praise from the riches of his grace in making all his people happy in him. Thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ! 2Co 2:14 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
22 All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him .
Ver. 22. See Mat 28:18 ; Joh 3:35 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Luk 10:22 . This part of the devotional utterance, setting forth Christ’s faith in the purpose of His Father and the intimate fellowship subsisting between Father and Son, appears in some texts of Lk. as a declaration made to the disciples ( . . ., T. R.). The gesture implies that a solemn statement is to be made. , : to know who the Son or the Father is = knowing the Son and the Father. The idea in Lk. is the same as in Mt., though the expression is different.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
are = were.
of = by. Greek hupo. App-104.
no. Greek. ou. App-105.
knoweth = getteth to know. Greek. ginosko. App-132.
but = except. will
reveal Him = willeth (App-102.) to reveal [Him].
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Luk 10:22. ) who, and how great and good.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
All things: “Many ancient copies add, And turning to his disciples he said.” Mat 11:27, Mat 28:18, Joh 3:35, Joh 5:22-27, Joh 13:3, Joh 17:2, Joh 17:10, 1Co 15:24, Eph 1:21, Phi 2:9-11, Heb 2:8
and no: Joh 1:18, Joh 6:44-46, Joh 10:15, Joh 17:5, Joh 17:26, 2Co 4:6, 1Jo 5:20, 2Jo 1:9
Reciprocal: Job 28:23 – General Job 37:23 – we Psa 16:9 – my heart Pro 2:5 – find Pro 30:4 – and what Isa 40:13 – hath directed Isa 54:13 – all Jer 9:24 – knoweth Dan 7:14 – given Dan 8:13 – that certain saint Hos 2:20 – and Mat 16:17 – but Mat 23:39 – Ye shall not Mar 11:33 – Neither Joh 3:11 – We speak Joh 5:20 – and showeth Joh 6:46 – he hath Joh 7:28 – whom Joh 8:19 – if Joh 8:55 – but Joh 14:7 – ye Joh 16:3 – because Joh 16:15 – General Joh 17:6 – have manifested Joh 17:25 – the world Phi 3:8 – the excellency Col 2:2 – of the Father 2Pe 1:2 – the knowledge 2Pe 1:17 – God 1Jo 2:1 – Father 1Jo 2:13 – because 1Jo 2:23 – denieth 1Jo 4:6 – he that knoweth Rev 19:12 – a name
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2
The complete mutual knowledge of the Father and Son of each other was not shared by the world. But such information as would be deemed necessary for others was to be revealed by the Son in his own manner.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 10:22. Some older manuscripts and versions insert: And turning to the disciples He said This would give what follows the character of a direct address. In Luk 10:23 the same form occurs, but privately is added. The statements of Luk 10:21-22, very appropriate in their connection with the successful preaching of the Seventy. In this success our Lord rejoiced, for in it He saw the future glory of God to be manifested in the revelation of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven to those of childlike spirit. The future conquest of the world by Jesus and His disciples rests on the relation which He sustains to God, and with which He identifies His people. The perfect knowledge of God is, in the end, the sceptre of the universe. (Godet.)
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Ver. 22. The words, And He turned Him unto His disciples, which are read here by several Mjj., are in vain defended by Tischendorf and Meyer. They are not authentic. How indeed could we understand this , having turned Himself? Turned, Meyer explains, turned from His Father, to whom He has been praying, towards men. But would the phrase turn Himself back be suitable in this sense? We have here a gloss occasioned by the , privately, of Luk 10:23. The wish has been to establish a difference between this first revelation, made to the disciples in general (Luk 10:22), and the following, more special still, addressed to some of them only (Luk 10:23). Here we have one of the rare instances in which the T. R. (which rejects the words) differs from the third edition of Steph.
The joyful outburst of Luk 10:21 is carried on without interruption into Luk 10:22; only the first impression of adoration gives way to calm meditation. The experience through which Jesus has just passed has transported Him, as it were, into the bosom of His Father. He plunges into it, and His words become an echo of the joys of His eternal generation.
As in the passage which precedes (Luk 10:21), and in that which follows (22b), it is only knowledge which is spoken of, the words, All things are delivered to me of my Father, are often taken as referring to the possession and communication of religious truths, of the knowledge of God. But the work accomplished by the disciples, on occasion of which Jesus uttered those sayings, was not merely a work of teachingthere was necessarily involved in it a display of force. To overturn the throne of Satan on the earth, and to put in its place the kingdom of God, was a mission demanding a power of action. But this power was closely connected with the knowledge of God. To know God means to be initiated into His plan; means to think with Him, and consequently to will as He does. Now, to will with God, and to be self-consecrated to Him as an instrument in His service, is the secret of participation in His omnipotence. The education of souls, Gess rightly observes, is the greatest of the works of Omnipotence. Everything in the universe, accordingly, should be subordinate to it. There is a strong resemblance between this saying of Jesus and that of John the Baptist (Joh 3:35): The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand,a declaration which is immediately connected with the other relative to the teaching of Jesus: He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God.
The gift denoted by the aor. , are delivered to me, is the subject of an eternal decree; but it is realized progressively in time, like everything which is subject to the conditions of human development. The chief periods in its realization are these three: The coming of Jesus into the world, His entrance upon His Messianic ministry, and His restoration to His divine state. Such are the steps by which the new Master took the place of the old (Luk 4:6), and was raised to Omnipotence. Delivered, Gess well observes, either for salvation or for judgment. The , and, which connects the two parts of the verse, may be thus paraphrased: and that, because…The future conquest of the world by Jesus and His disciples rests on the relation which He sustains to God, and with which He identifies His people. The perfect knowledge of God is, in the end, the sceptre of the universe.
Here there is a remarkable difference in compiling between Luke and Matthew: , no one recognises, or discerns, says Matthew. To the idea of knowing, this (to put the finger upon) has the effect of adding the idea of confirming experimentally. The knowledge in question is one de visu. Luke uses the simple verb , to know, which is weaker and less precise; but he makes up for this deficiency in the notion of the verb by amplifying its regimen, What is the Father…, what is the Son; that is to say, all that God is as a Father to the man who has the happiness of knowing Him as a son, and all that the name son includes for the man who has the happiness of hearing it pronounced by the mouth of the Father,all that the Father and Son are the one to the other. Perhaps Matthew’s form of expression is a shade more intellectual or didactic; that of Luke rather moves in the sphere of feeling. How should we explain the two forms, each of which is evidently independent of the other? Jesus must have employed in Aramaic the verb , H3359, to know.Now , H3359 is construed either with the accusative or with one of the two prepositions , in, or , upon. The construction with one or other of these prepositions adds something to the notion of the verb. For example, , H9048, to hear; , to listen; , to listen with acquiescence of heart. There is a similar difference of meaning between , H3359 and or ,a difference analogous to that between the two expressions, rem cognoscere and cognoscere de re, to know a thing and to know of a thing. Thus, in the passage in Job 37:16, where , H3359 is construed with , upon, the sense is not, Knowest thou balancings of the clouds?
Job could not but have known the fact which falls under our eyes,but understandest thou the…? Now if we suppose that Jesus used the verb , H3359 with one of the prepositions or , the two Greek forms may be explained as two different attempts to render the entire fulness of the Aramaic expression; that of Matthew strengthening the notion of the simple verb by the preposition (re cognise) (which would correspond more literally with ); that of Luke, by giving greater fulness to the idea of the object, by means of the paraphrase , what is.
A remarkable example, Luk 9:3, has already shown how differences of matter and form in the reproduction of the words of Jesus by our evangelists are sometimes explained with the utmost ease by going back to the Hebrew or Aramaic text. What a proof of the authenticity of those discourses! What a proof also of the independence of our several Greek Digests!
That exclusive knowledge which the Father and Son have of one another is evidently not the cause of their paternal and filial relation; on the contrary, it is the effect of it. Jesus is not the Son because He alone perfectly knows the Father, and is fully known only by Him; but He knows Him and is known by Him in this way only because He is the Son. In like manner, God is not the Father because He alone knows the Son, and is known only by Him; but this double knowledge is the effect of that paternal relation which He sustains to the Son.
The article before the two substantives serves to raise this unique relation above the relative temporal order of things, and to put it in the sphere of the absolute, in the very essence of the two Beings. God did not become Father at an hour marked on some earthly dial. If He is a Father to certain beings born in time, it is because He is the Father absolutely,that is to say, in relation to a Being who is not born in time, and who is toward Him the Son as absolutely. Such is the explanation of the difficult verse, Eph 3:15. Mark, who has not the passage, gives another wherein the term the Son is used in the same absolute sense, Luk 13:32 : But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. After words like these, we cannot admit any radical difference between the Jesus of the Synoptics and that of John. The existence of the Son belonging to the essence of the Father, the pre-existence of the one is implied in the eternity of the other.
Immediate knowledge of the Father is the exclusive privilege of the Son. But it becomes the portion of believers as soon as He initiates them into the contents of His filial consciousness, and consents to share it with them. By this participation in the consciousness of the Son (the work of the Holy Spirit), the believer in his turn attains to the intuitive knowledge of the Father. Comp. Joh 1:18; Joh 14:6; Joh 17:26. With Gess, we ought to remark the importance of the priority given to the knowledge of the Son by the Father over that of the Father by the Son. Were the order inverted, the gift of all things, the , would have appeared to rest on the religious instruction which Jesus had been giving to men. The actual order makes it the consequence of the unsearchable relation between Jesus and the Father, in virtue of which He can be to souls everything that the Father Himself is to them.
This passage (Luk 10:21-22) is placed by Matthew, chap. 11, after the denunciation pronounced on the Galilean cities, and immediately following on the deputation of John the Baptist. We cannot comprehend those of our critics, Gess included, who prefer this situation to that of Luke. Gess thinks that the disciples (Luk 10:21) are contrasted with the unbelieving Galilean cities. But the whole passage refers to the disciples as instruments in God’s work; and Jesus contrasts them not with the ignorant Galileans, but with the wise of Jerusalem. See Matthew even, Luk 10:25. As to the following sentence, Luk 10:22, Gess thinks that he can paraphrase it thus: No man, not even John the Baptist, knoweth the Son…, in order thus to connect it with the account of the forerunner’s embassy, which forms the preceding context in Matthew. But in relation to the preceding verse the word no man alludes not to John, but to the wise and learned of Jerusalem, who pretended that they alone had the knowledge of God (Luk 11:52). It is not difficult, then, to perceive the superiority of Luke’s context; and we may prove here, as everywhere else, the process of concatenation, in virtue of which we find different elements united together in Mat 11:7-30 by a simple association of ideas in the mind of the compiler.
With the last words of Luk 10:22, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him, the thought of Jesus reverts to His disciples who surround Him, and in whom there is produced at this very time the beginning of the promised illumination. He now addresses Himself to them. The meditation of Luk 10:22 is the transition between the adoration of Luk 10:21 and the congratulation which follows.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
10:22 {6} All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and [he] to whom the Son will reveal [him].
(6) Whoever seeks the Father without the Son wanders out of the way.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
This verse appears to be a statement to the disciples rather than a continuation of Jesus’ prayer, but Luk 10:23 specifically identifies the beginning of His words to the disciples. Therefore we should probably understand Luk 10:22 as part of His prayer. Apparently Jesus spoke these words for the disciples’ benefit as much as for His Father’s.
The "all things" in view probably include divine revelation and divine power, considering the context. The second and third clauses indicate that the Father and the Son know each other completely. Consequently only the Son can reveal the Father. There are only two incidents that the synoptic evangelists recorded in which Jesus referred to Himself as "the Son" (Mat 11:27, the parallel passage to this one, and Mar 13:32), but John recorded many such incidents. Jesus concluded by saying that the Son bestows knowledge of the Father according to the Son’s will. By saying these things, Jesus was claiming to have an exclusive relationship with God and to be the sole mediator of the knowledge of God to humankind (cf. Luk 4:32; 1Ti 2:5).