Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 1:15
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.
15. great in the sight of the Lord ] See Luk 7:24-30; Mat 11:11.
shall drink neither wine nor strong drink ] He shall be a Nazarite (Luk 7:33; Num 6:1-4); like Samson (Jdg 13:2-7); and the Rechabites (Jer 35:6). ‘Strong drink’ ( Sikera from Heb. Shakar ‘he is intoxicated’) was also forbidden to ministering priests, Lev 10:8. The term seems to have been specially applied to palm wine (Plin. Hist. Nat. xiv. 19), and all intoxicants (e. g. beer, &c.) which are not made of the juice of the grape. ‘ Ne Syder,’ Wyclif.
shall be filled with the Holy Ghost ] The contrast between the false and hateful excitement of drunkenness and the divine exaltation of spiritual fervour is also found in Eph 5:18, “Be not drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit.” Comp. Act 2:13.
even from his mother’s womb ] Compare 1Sa 1:11; Jer 1:5.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Shall be great – Shall be eminent, or distinguished as a preacher.
In the sight of the Lord – Greek, before the Lord. That is, shall be really or truly great. God shall regard him as such.
Shall drink neither wine – The kind of wine commonly used in Judea was a light wine, often not stronger than cider in this country. It was the common drink of all classes of the people. See the notes at Joh 2:11. The use of wine was forbidden only to the Nazarite, Num 6:3. It was because John sustained this character that he abstained from the use of wine.
Strong drink – It is not easy to ascertain precisely what is meant by this word, but we are certain that it does not mean strong drink in our sense of the term. Distilled spirits were not then known. The art of distilling was discovered by an Arabian chemist in the 9th or 10th century; but distilled liquors are not used by Arabians. They banished them at once, as if sensible of their pernicious influence; nor are they used in Eastern nations at all. Europe and America have been the places where this poison has been most extensively used, and there it has beggared and ruined millions, and is yearly sweeping thousands unprepared into a wretched eternity. The strong drink among the Jews was probably nothing more than fermented liquors, or a drink obtained from fermented dates, figs, and the juice of the palm, or the lees of wine, mingled with sugar, and having the property of producing intoxication. Many of the Jewish writers say that by the word here translated strong drink was meant nothing more than old wine, which probably had the power of producing intoxication. See the notes at Isa 5:11.
Shall be filled with the Holy Ghost … – Shall be divinely designated or appointed to this office, and qualified for it by all needful communications of the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be illuminated, sanctified, and guided by his influence. In this place it refers:
- To the divine intention that he should be set apart to this work, as God designed that Paul should be an apostle from his mothers womb, Gal 1:15.
- It refers to an actual fitting for the work from the birth by the influence of the Holy Spirit, as was the case with Jeremiah Jer 1:5, and with the Messiah himself, Psa 22:9-10.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Luk 1:15-16
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord
True greatness
What is greatness?
Scarcely two persons among us would give the same reply to that question. All would admit that it denotes pre-eminence, but each would have his own preference as to the department in which it was to be manifested. Some would associate it with power, some with courage, some with eloquence, and some, perhaps, with wealth; yet each would think of it as conferring an advantage on its possessor, and so putting others at a corresponding disadvantage. The really great man is he whom holiness and love combine to inspire for the service of his generation by the will of God.
1. He who wins this greatness does not attain it at the expense of others.
2. We may win this greatness anywhere.
3. This greatness is satisfying to its possessor.
The highest commendation one can earn is this–He hath done what he could; and the noblest life-record is that which comes nearest to His of whom it was said that He went about doing good. That is fame, though no earthly herald may trumpet it abroad, for Christ shall proclaim it on the day of days before the assembled universe. (Dr. W. M. Taylor.)
Character of John the Baptist
He was no selfish lover of his own soul, too fearful of pollution to touch society, but a magnanimous reformer, great in his love alike of man and of righteousness. He was too much the pupil of Divine freedom and discipline to be the child of any school, the spokesman of any sect. His faith was the fruit of inspiration as opposed to experience. His education made him a preacher who lived as he believed, possessed of the courage to summon men to a like life and faith. (A. M.Fairbairn, D. D.)
A strange greatness
The child was to be great in the sight of the Lord. According to the verdict of our Lord passed afterwards, he was the greatest of those born of women until His time. Yet what a strange greatness! A poor man, living in the wilderness the life of an anchorite, and at length beheaded by a wicked king, buried by his disciples, and nothing more heard of him! There is another person mentioned in this chapter who was also called great. Herod the king, mentioned in the fifth verse, is commonly known as Herod the Great, but he was not great in the sight of the Lord, only great in the sight of himself and of his court, and of those who admired his skill in adding to his kingdom. Which was the really great man? Which will appear to be great when the magnitude of men is tested by God, and when men are weighed in the righteous balances of Gods judgment? (Bishop Goodwin.)
In the sight of the Lord
We are what we are in Gods sight, not what men think us, not what we think ourselves, but what He sees and knows that we are, nothing more, nothing less. (Dean Church.)
And shall drink neither wine nor strong drink
His drink was water of the river. He lived on locusts and wild honey. Men felt in him that power of mastery which is always granted to perfect self-denial. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost
Take it as a broad fact in nature that there is no such thing as emptiness. If any corner of the world is vacated even for an instant, something else will come in instantaneously to fill up the empty space. So by the constitution of human nature there is no possibility of emptiness in the soul of man. The spiritual nature abhors a vacuum. If a man will not let good into his life, evil must and will possess it. If he would eject evil from his life, he can only do so by letting good into it. The most striking recognition of the principle occurs in Pauls letter to the Christians at Ephesus. He is taking them to task with reference to certain abuses which had crept into their Church. Prominent among these was drunkenness. Be not drunk with wine, says the apostle, but be filled with the Spirit. Wine versus the Spirit! The disease was not drunkenness. The drunkenness was a casual episode. The souls of these men had an empty chamber which must be filled. Their legitimate food was God. This was rejected or neglected. But the void remained. That could not be neglected. It must be filled with God or with a substitute. We may choose this substitute for ourselves, but we cannot not-choose it, for nature abhors a vacuum. The Ephesians had made their choice–it was wine. This was what Paul saw. To cure it how was he to proceed? He could not enjoin abstinence. The problem was not the drink, but the vacuum. He must make some proposal, therefore, about the vacuum. Fill yourselves, he says, with the Spirit of God. There is a valid relation between the stimulus of intoxicants and the stimulus of religion. Either, so far, will carry out the law of filling the vacuum. But merely to adjure a man not to be filled with wine is to command an impossibility. You must give him another stimulus equally absorbing, intenser, richer, and when the sensual passion is high and strong your substitute must be supreme. There is only one thing which will absorb it quite–the more abundant life of God. (Professor Drummond.)
The choice is not between God and an empty heart. Man is like a house situated between two winds. On the one side comes the wind from a dreary, bleak desert, laden with fog and disease, blowing across things foul and rotten. The other side of the house fronts the sunlight, and winds that blow from the wide, fresh sea, and over gardens, orchards, and blooming fields. Every one must decide to which side he is going to open. Both doors cannot be shut. You can only get the dismal, fatal door shut by opening wide the door that looks to the sea of eternity, and the sunshine of God. The wind blowing in through this open door keeps that door of ruin shut. (Dr. Joseph Leckie.)
And many of the children of Israel, &c.
I. To be children of Israel not necessarily equivalent to being spiritually sons of Abraham (Joh 8:39).
II. As a historical fact the children of Israel over and over again turned from the Lord, and at the beginning of the Baptists ministry nearly the whole nation had sunk into religious formalism.
III. But repentance was still possible to Israel after ages of unfaithfulness. Still they might turn to the Lord their God. Johns message was Repent! and his preaching produced the effects here foretold (see Luk 3:7-14).
IV. He shall turn. Recognition of human instrumentality in the doing of the work which only the Spirit of God can do–the production of conviction leading to conversion. (J. R. Bailey.)
Goodness is greatness
Nothing can make a man truly great, but being truly good, and a partaker of Gods holiness. A dram of goodness is worth more than all worldly greatness. Wealth, honour, power, may constitute a person great in the estimation of man; but faith, love, and true holiness are necessary to secure for us Gods approbation. (Henry R. Burton.)
Abstinence and promotion
When General Grant was in command of the army before Vicksburg, a number of officers were gathered at his headquarters. One of them invited the party to join in a social glass; all but one accepted. He asked to be excused, saying that he never drank. The hour passed, and each went his way to his respective command. A few days after this the officer who declined to drink received a note from General Grant to report at headquarters. He obeyed the order, and Grant said to him, You are the officer, I believe, who remarked the other day that you never drank? The officer modestly answered that he was. Then, continued the General, you are the man I have been looking for to take charge of the Commissary Department, and I order that you be detailed to that duty. He served all through the war in that responsible department, and afterwards, when General Grant became President, the officer who never drank was again in request. The President, needing a man on whom he could rely for some important business, gave him the appointment. (Christian Chronicle.)
Abstinence and health
Before I became an abstainer I was much subject to fainting fits. I even fainted in the pulpit, and my life was a burden; and when I had made up my mind to abstain my medical man came from London and said, If you do you will probably die. You want the whip for your constitution. I did not believe him, and I said, Very well, doctor, then Ill die, and theres an end of it. But I have not died. And when I met that medical man in London three days since I said, Now, doctor, what do you think of it? He said, You beat me altogether. I was never more mistaken in any case in my life. And now let me tell you that if there was no such thing as alcohol I should have to put up my shutters.
Nearly all the illnesses that come before me have, in one sense or another, come from that; not always from the personal indulgence of the patients, but because this is hereditary. (Canon Basil Wilberforce.)
A great man
A man who can be satisfied with nothing less than that which is real and right; who is content to count all things loss for the attainment of a spiritual aim, and to fight for it against all enemies; who deems truth the bread of life and makes its pursuit his daily labour–he is a great man.
Personal influence in conversion
Dr. Tyng, speaking of personal influence, mentions a young lady whom no storms of snow or rain ever kept from her class. One after another of her scholars, he says, would come to him, and when he would ask the question, What has led you to seek a Saviours love? they would mention her name, until, he says, I traced twenty.five, at least, of my young people who were converted through her prayers and labours, and among them that beloved son of mine, at whose bedside I sat for sixteen long hours, wondering why God had taken him and left me behind. This was the character of that girl. Nothing kept her back.
Conversion must be a complete surrender
When Henry VIII. had determined to make himself head of the English Church, he insisted upon it that Convocation should accept his headship without limiting and modifying clauses. He refused to entertain any compromises, and vowed that he would have no tantrums, as he called them. Thus when a sinner parleys with his Saviour he would fain have a little of the honour of his salvation, he would save alive some favourite sin, he would fain amend the humbling terms of grace; but there is no help for it, Jesus will be all in all, and the sinner must be nothing at all. The surrender must be complete, there must be no tantrums, but the heart must without reserve submit to the sovereignty of the Redeemer. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Importance of one conversion
It is impossible to overrate the importance of the conversion of one soul to Christ, or of the hardening of one heart in sin An old Puritan doctor writes a book more than two hundred years ago, called The Bruised Reed, which falls into the hands of Richard Baxter, and leads his penitent spirit to its trust in Christ. Baxters ministry is like that of a giant in his strength, and when he dies his Call to the Unconverted goes preaching on to thousands to whom Baxter himself had never spoken with human tongue. Philip Doddridge, prepared by his pious mothers teaching, hears this piercing Call, devotes the summer of his life to God, and becomes a burning and a shining light. Doddridges Rise and Progress fell into the hands of Wilberforce, and led him to thought and to prayer. Wilberforces Practical View cleared the faith and fired the zeal of a clergyman in the sunny South, and he wrote the simple annal of a Methodist girl, which has borne fruit of blessing in every quarter of the globe; for who has not heard of Legh Richmond and The Dairyman!s Daughter? And then the same book had a ministry in the bleak North, and in a country parish found out a Scottish clergyman who was preaching a gospel which he did not know, and he embraced the fulness of the glad tidings, and came forth a champion for the truth, furnished in all things and ready, until all Scotland rang with the eloquence of Thomas Chalmers. (W. M. Punshon, D,D.)
Character and work of John
Much of the wisdom of Providence appears in fitting the instrument to the work. The work appointed to John was to reclaim the nation from its departure from God, to rouse a people sunk in insensibility and impenitence, to preach repentance, to proclaim the approach of the kingdom of heaven, to usher in a higher economy, a new dispensation; and for all this he was admirably qualified. He was endued with the spirit and power of Elias. His spirit was undaunted and unyielding; he rebuked the pride of kings. He was indifferent and insensible alike to the charms of pleasure, the allurement of pomp, the smiles of power, and the frowns of greatness. His whole soul was concentrated in his object. He was superior to the world; its forms and fashions made no impression on his mind, and left no traces. He was austere in his manner, abstemious in his food, rustic in his apparel; he partook of the wildness of the wilderness in which he first made his appearance. (Robert Hall.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. He shall be great in the sight of the Lord] That is, before Jesus Christ, whose forerunner he shall be; or he shall be a truly great person, for so this form of speech may imply.
Neither wine nor strong drink] , i.e. all fermented liquors which have the property of intoxicating, or producing drunkenness. The original word , sikera, comes from the Hebrew, shakar, to inebriate. “Any inebriating liquor,” says St. Jerome, (Epis. ad Nepot.)” is called sicera, whether made of corn, apples, honey, dates, or any other fruits.” One of the four prohibited liquors among the East Indian Moslimans is called sikkir. “Sikkir is made by steeping fresh dates in water till they take effect in sweetening it: this liquor is abominable and unlawful.” HEDAYA, vol. iv. p. 158. Probably this is the very liquor referred to in the text. In the Institutes of Menu it is said, “Inebriating liquor may be considered as of three principal sorts: that extracted from dregs of sugar, that extracted from bruised rice, and that extracted from the flowers of the madhuca: as one, so are all; they shall not be tasted by the chief of the twice-born.” Chap. xi. Inst. 95. Twice-born is used by the Brahmins in the same sense as being born again is used by Christians. It signifies a spiritual regeneration. From this word comes our English term cyder, or sider, a beverage made of the fermented juice of apples. See Clarke on Le 10:9.
Shall be filled with the Holy Ghost] Shall be Divinely designated to this particular office, and qualified for it, from his mother’s womb-from the instant of his birth. One MS., two versions, and four of the primitive fathers read , IN the womb of has mother – intimating that even before he should be born into the world the Holy Spirit should be communicated to him. Did not this take place on the salutation of the Virgin Mary? – and is not this what is intended, Lu 1:44? To be filled with the Holy Ghost, implies having the soul influenced in all its powers, with the illuminating, strengthening, and sanctifying energy of the Spirit.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
We have a natural ambition to be great, but it is only to be great in the sight of men; thence one man coveteth riches, another honours and reputation; but the true greatness is to be
great in the sight of the Lord, who doth certainly judge with the truest and most infallible judgment. In Gods sight he is a great man of whom God maketh a great use, especially in turning many souls to himself. Consider John separately from his work, and the concurrence of God with his work, he was a very little man, and so looked upon by the Pharisees and rulers, who would not believe in him. His father was an ordinary priest. For titles and dignities, he had none; John the Baptist was his highest title. For his clothing; he was not clothed in soft raiment, (as princes chaplains), he was clothed with a skin, with camels hair, and had a leathern girdle about his loins; yet Christ saith of him,
Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. He had no palace, no stately habitation; he lived mostly in desert places little inhabited. Nature was his cook, that provided him locusts and wild honey. Where was his greatness, but in thisHe was a great and faithful preacher of the gospel, and God blessed his labours to convert souls? They are little men that do little of the work for which God hath sent them into the world, and do little good in their generation.
He shall drink neither wine nor strong drink: by strong drink is meant any drink which ordinarily intoxicates. This was the law of the Nazarites, Num 6:3. It was forbidden the priests during the time of their ministration upon pain of death, Lev 10:9. No lovers of wine and strong drink can be great men in the sight of God. The minister of the gospel must not be one given to wine, 1Ti 3:3; Tit 1:7.
And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mothers womb. This is true, both as to prophecy, (which is all extraordinary gift of the Holy Ghost), and also of the Holy Ghost considered as a sanctifying Spirit renewing the heart.
And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. Then it seems there is another conversion besides the conversion of men from paganism. John (with the assistance of the Holy Ghost) was an instrument to turn many of the Israelites, who already verbally owned the true God, but were drenched in errors, and superstitions, and looseness of life, to the Lord their God, by repentance; and this he did by preaching both law and gospel to them. This made him a great man, for, They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever, Dan 12:3.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. great in the sight of theLordnearer to Him in official standing than all the prophets.(See Mat 11:10; Mat 11:11.)
drink neither wine nor strongdrinkthat is, shall be a Nazarite, or “a separatedone” (Nu 6:2, c.). As theleper was the living symbol of sin, so was the Nazarite ofholiness nothing inflaming was to cross his lips; no razor tocome on his head; no ceremonial defilement to be contracted. Thus washe to be “holy to the Lord [ceremonially] all the days of hisseparation.” This separation was in ordinary cases temporary andvoluntary: only Samson (Jud13:7), Samuel (1Sa 1:11),and John Baptist were Nazarites from the womb. It was fittingthat the utmost severity of legal consecration should be seen inChrist’s forerunner. HEwas the REALITY andPERFECTION of the Nazaritewithout the symbol, which perished in that living realization of it:”Such an High Priest became us, who was SEPARATEFROM SINNERS”(Heb 7:26).
filled with the Holy Ghost,from . . . womba holy vessel for future service.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord,…. Of Jehovah, the Father; with whom, what is highly esteemed among men, is oftentimes an abomination; and of the Lord Jesus Christ, before whom he was to go, and who pronounced him a prophet, and more than a prophet, and even greater than any born of women, Mt 11:9 and of the Lord, the Spirit, with whom he was filled from his mother’s womb: he was great, not in birth and blood, in worldly riches and grandeur, but in gifts and grace, in his work, office, and usefulness, and in the esteem of God, and even of men too:
and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; which were forbidden the Nazarites, Nu 6:3 where the Jews, by “wine”, understand “new wine”; and by “strong drink”, old wine: so all the “three Targums”, of Onkelos, Jonathan ben Uzziel, and the Jerusalem, paraphrase the words there, “from wine new and old, he shall separate himself”; and they allow strong drink to a Nazarite, that has no wine in it: their canon r runs thus,
“three things are forbidden a Nazarite, defilement, and shaving, and whatever proceeds from the vine, whether fruit, or the refuse of fruit; but strong drink made of dates, or dried figs, and such like, is free for a Nazarite; and the strong drink which is forbidden him in the law, is strong drink made of mixture of wine.”
But the Hebrew word, , and which is here retained by the evangelist, signifies s any sort of liquor, which is inebriating, whether it is made of fruits, or honey, or what not. The Jews had no such strong drink as ours, which we call beer or ale; but they speak of the strong drink of the Medes, which they say was an inebriating liquor, made of barley t:
and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb; or “whilst in his mother’s womb”, as the Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions render it: like Jeremiah, he was sanctified, set apart, and ordained to be the prophet of the Highest, before he came out of his mother’s womb; and was then under such an influence of the Spirit of God, as to leap in it for joy, at the salutation of the mother of Christ to his, Lu 1:41 and very early appeared to have the extraordinary gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost, qualifying him for his work.
r Maimon. Hilch. Nezirut, c. 5. sect. 1. s R. David Kimchi in Sepher Shorashim, rad. t Misn. Pesach. c. 3. sect. 1. & Jarchi, Maimom. & Bartenora in ib.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Strong drink (). A Hebrew word transliterated into Greek, an intoxicating drink. Here only in the N.T. John was to be a personal “dry” or Nazarite (Nu 6:3).
Shall not drink ( ). Strong prohibition, double negative and second aorist subjunctive.
The Holy Ghost ( ). The Holy Spirit in contrast to the physical excitement of strong drink (Plummer). Luke uses this phrase 53 times, 12 in the Gospel, Mark and John 4 each, Matthew 5 times.
Even from his mother’s womb ( ). A manifest Hebraism. Cf. verse 41.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Strong drink [] . A Hebrew word, meaning any kind of intoxicating liquor not made from grapes. Wyc., sydir.
Even from his mother’s womb. Eti, yet, still, means while yet unborn. Tynd., even in his mother’s womb. Compare verse 41.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord,” (estai ger megas enopion kuriou) “For he will be great in the eyes of the Lord,” not only for his character, but also for his moral, ethical, and religious devotion. He was to be great in holiness and usefulness, as certified by our Lord personally, Luk 7:28.
2) “And shall drink neither wine nor strong drink;” (kai oinon kai sikera ou me pie) “And he may by no means &ink wine and strong drink.” Strong drink was abstracted from most any fruit but grapes, but never from grapes. He was to be a Nazarite, one committed to abstinence from both wine and strong drink, Num 6:1-5.
3) “And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost,” (kai pseumatos hagiou plesthesetai) “And he will be filled with or controlled of the Holy Spirit,” in contrast with ones being “filled with” or “controlled by” wine, as described Eph 5:18; A man wholly under the will of God.
4) “Even from his mother’s womb.” (eti ek koilias metros autou) “Even from the womb of his mother, “or from birth. No razor was to come upon him, as a mark of one dedicated wholly to God, as Samson was, Jdg 13:7, and as Samuel was, 1Sa 1:11. As the leper was a living symbol of uncleanness. No strong drink was to touch his lips and no razor was to come upon his head. He was to be “holy to the Lord all the days of his separation,” which might be voluntary or temporary, only three were separated for life, Samson; Samuel, and John.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
15. For he shall be great He confirms what he said about joy, for John had been selected for a great and extraordinary purpose. These words are not so much intended to extol his eminent virtues as to proclaim his great and glorious office; as Christ, when he declares that among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist, (Mat 11:11,) refers less to the holiness of his life than to his ministry. What follows immediately afterwards, he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, must not be understood to mean that John’s abstemiousness was a singular virtue, but that God was pleased to distinguish his servant by this visible token, by which the world would acknowledge him to be a continual Nazarite. The priests too abstained from wine and strong drink, while they were performing their duties in the temple, (Lev 10:9.) The same abstinence was enjoined on the Nazarites, (Num 6:3,) until their vow should be fulfilled. By a striking mark God showed that John was dedicated to him to be a Nazarite for his whole life, as we learn was also the case with Samson, (Jud 13:3.) But we must not on this ground imagine that the worship of God consists in abstinence from wine, as apish copyists select some part of the actions of the fathers for an object of imitation. Only let all practice temperance, let those who conceive it to be injurious to drink wine abstain of their own accord, and let those who have it not endure the want with contentment. As to the word σίκερα, I fully agree with those who think that, like the Hebrew word שכר, it denotes any sort of manufactured wine.
He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost These words, I think, convey nothing more than that John would manifest such a disposition as would hold out the hope of future greatness. By disposition I mean not such as is found even in ungodly men, but what corresponds to the excellence of his office. The meaning is, the power and grace of the Spirit will appear in him not only when he shall enter upon his public employment, but even from the womb he shall excel in the gifts of the Spirit, which will be a token and pledge of his future character. From the womb, means from his earliest infancy. The power of the Spirit, I acknowledge, did operate in John, while he was yet in his mother’s womb; but here, in my opinion, the angel meant something else, that John, even when a child, would be brought forward to the public gaze, accompanied by extraordinary commendation of the grace of God. As to fullness, there is no occasion for entering into the subtle disputations, or rather the trifling, of the sophists; for Scripture conveys nothing more by this word than the pre-eminent and very uncommon abundance of the gifts of the Spirit. We know, that to Christ alone the Spirit was given without measure, (Joh 3:34,) that we may draw out of his fullness, (Joh 1:16😉 while to others it is distributed according to a fixed measure, (1Co 12:11; Eph 4:7.) But those who are more plentifully endued with grace beyond the ordinary capacity, are said to be full of the Holy Ghost. Now, as the more plentiful influence of the Spirit was in John an extraordinary gift of God, it ought to be observed that the Spirit is not bestowed on all from their very infancy, but only when it pleases God. John bore from the womb a token of future rank. Saul, while tending the herd, remained long without any mark of royalty, and, when at length chosen to be king, was suddenly turned into another man, (1Sa 10:6.) Let us learn by this example that, from the earliest infancy to the latest old age, the operation of the Spirit in men is free.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) And shall drink neither wine nor strong drink.The child now promised was to grow up as a Nazarite (Num. 6:4), and to keep that vow all his life, as the representative of the ascetic, the separated, form (this is the meaning of the term) of a consecrated life. He was to be what Samson had been (Jdg. 13:4), and probably Samuel also (1Sa. 1:11), and the house of Jonadab the son of Rechab (Jer. 35:6). The close connection between the Nazarite and the prophetic life is seen in Amo. 2:11-12. The absence of the lower form of stimulation implied the capacity for the higher enthusiasm which was the gift of God. The same contrast is seen in St. Pauls words, Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18).
He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.The words would be understood by Zacharias from the Hebrew point of view, not as seen in the fuller light of Christian theology. As such they would convey the thought of the highest prophetic inspiration, as in Isa. 11:2; Isa. 61:1; Joe. 2:28.
Even from his mothers womb.The thought of a life from first to last in harmony with itself and consecrated to the prophets work, had its prototype in Jeremiah (Jer. 1:5).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Neither wine nor strong drink This is in accordance with the vow of the Nazarite, Num 6:3-4. Similar announcements were made concerning Samson, Jdg 13:4-5, and Samuel, 1Sa 1:11. The Nazarite thus consecrates himself to an over self-severity, in order to raise the people to the idea of self-control and temperance. They were eminent in abstinence, in order by example to raise the popular standard of mastery over bodily appetites. They abstained from what was innocent, either in quality or measure, in order to influence the world to abstain from what was guilty either in kind or in excessive degree. John was to be Nazarite; Jesus was to be the model, not of over self-severity, but of practical and duly measured innocence and right. Paul gives a rule for Christian Nazaritism in 1Co 8:13. Our modern temperance societies are properly a Christian Nazaritism. They are a moral enterprise, aiming to raise the public practice to a standard of temperance by exhibiting an abstinence from even an otherwise innocent measure of indulgence. Strong drink included all exhilarating liquors besides wine. The chemical art of distilling the modern inflaming liquors was unknown to the ancients; but they were able to make intoxicating drinks from the palm-tree, from apples, and from grains. Drunkenness was by no means thereby wholly unknown. See Isa 5:22; Pro 23:29-30.
Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb Even before birth the plenary influence of the Holy Spirit shall be upon and in his spirit. As soon as the soul shall quicken the unborn, there shall rest a holy power upon it. There is no Scripture ground for supposing with some that the child, even before birth, is no possible subject of sanctifying power.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Luk 1:15. He shall be great, &c. By this some understand that true greatness, whereof God is the sovereign judge, in opposition to that greatness which men acknowledge, who very often err in their opinion of things. “He shall be great in the sight of God, not of man.” But great in the sight of God seems to be a Hebrew expression of the same form with , Act 7:20 fair to God, or exceeding fair, and signifies, he shall be exceeding great; namely, in respect of his character, his office, his inspiration, and the success of his ministry, as it is explained by the angel himself. He was to drink neither wine nor strong drink; that is, to convince mankind that he was separated in a peculiar manner for the service of God. He was to live the life of the Nazarites, Num 6:3 who were esteemed as devoted to God’s service in a particular manner. He was to be filled with the Holy Ghost, which, in Scripture, commonly signifies that degree of inspiration by which the prophets anciently spake. Accordingly, in this chapter it is applied to Elizabeth, to Mary, and Zacharias, in cases where they all spake by a particular inspiration.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Luk 1:15 . . . .] A designation of a truly great man; “talis enim quisque vere est, qualis est coram Deo,” Estius. Comp. on Luk 1:6 .
. . .] Description of a , as those were called, who had for the service of God bound themselves to abstain from wine and other intoxicating drinks (Num 6:3 ), and to let the hair of their head grow. John was a Nazarite, not for a certain time, but for life, like Samson (Jdg 13:5 ) and Samuel (1Sa 1:12 ). See in general, Ewald, Alterth. p. 96 ff.; Saalschtz, Mos. R. p 361 f.; Keil, Archol. I. 67; Vilmar in the Stud. u. Krit. 1864, p. 438 ff.
( ), which does not occur in the Greek writers, is any exciting drink of the nature of wine, but not made of grapes; Lev 10:9 and frequently in the LXX. It was prepared from corn, fruit, dates, palms (Pliny, H. N. xiv. 19), and so forth. Eusebius, Praep. Evang. vi. 10, has the genitive .
. . .] never stands for , but: of the Holy Spirit [19] he shall be full even from his mother’s womb , so that thus already in his mother’s womb (see Origen) he shall be filled with the Spirit. A pregnant form of embracing the two points. Comp. Plutarch, consol. ad Apoll. p. 104: (having therefore already followed ). Doubtless the leaping of the child in the mother’s womb, Luk 1:41 , is conceived of as a manifestation of this being filled with the Spirit. Comp. Calovius and Maldonatus.
[19] It is quite arbitrary in Olshausen to support the rationalistic opinion that the expression here is to be understood not of the distinctive Holy Spirit , but of the holy power of God in general.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.
Ver. 15. Great in the sight of the Lord ] Significatur singularis quaedam praestantia, ut Gen 10:9 . He shall be singularly qualified.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
15. ] . . ., signifying the spiritual nature of his office and influence.
The priests were similarly prohibited to drink strong drink; and the Nazarites even more rigidly: see reff.
. = (from , ‘inebriatus est’), ‘any strong liquor not made from grapes.’ [Wiclif renders “ He schal not drynke wyne ne sidir .”]
. . . is a contrast to , and a reason for, the not drinking wine nor strong drink: compare Eph 5:18 .
Olshausen and Meyer think that (comparing Luk 1:44 ) the meaning is, the Holy Spirit should in some wonderful manner act on the child even before his birth. But (see reff.) this is not necessary, nay, would it not rather be in this case ? The seems to fix the prior limit of the indwelling of the Spirit, at his birth . Meyer grounds his view on the meaning of as distinguished from , and takes the construction as embracing both particulars he shall be so in , and shall become so from So likewise Bleek, and Hoffmann, Weiss. und Erfll. ii. 250 f.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 1:15 . , a great man before the Lord; not merely in God’s sight = true greatness, but indicating the sphere or type of greatness: in the region of ethics and religion. , etc., points to the external badge of the moral and religious greatness: abstinence as a mark of consecration and separation a devotee. = (not Greek), strong drink, extracted from any kind of fruit but grapes (here only in N. T.). : in opposition to wine and strong drink, as in Eph 5:18 . But the conception of the Holy Spirit, formed from the Johannine type of piety, is very different from that of St. Paul, or suggested by the life of our Lord.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Luke
ELIJAH COME AGAIN
TRUE GREATNESS
Luk 1:15
So spake the angel who foretold the birth of John the Baptist. ‘In the sight of the Lord’-then men are not on a dead level in His eyes. Though He is so high and we are so low, the country beneath Him that He looks down upon is not flattened to Him, as it is to us from an elevation, but there are greater and smaller men in His sight, too. No epithet is more misused and misapplied than that of ‘a great man.’ It is flung about indiscriminately as ribbons and orders are by some petty State. Every little man that makes a noise for a while gets it hung round his neck. Think what a set they are that are gathered in the world’s Valhalla, and honoured as the world’s great men! The mass of people are so much on a level, and that level is so low, that an inch above the average looks gigantic. But the tallest blade of grass gets mown down by the scythe, and withers as quickly as the rest of its green companions, and goes its way into the oven as surely. There is the world’s false estimate of greatness and there is God’s estimate. If we want to know what the elements of true greatness are, we may well turn to the life of this man, of whom the prophecy went before him that he should be ‘great in the sight of the Lord.’ That is gold that will stand the test.
We may remember, too, that Jesus Christ, looking back on the career to which the angel was looking forward, endorsed the prophecy and declared that it had become a fact, and that ‘of them that were born of women there had not arisen a greater than John the Baptist.’ With the illumination of His eulogium we may turn to this life, then, and gather some lessons for our own guidance.
I. First, we note in John unwavering and immovable firmness and courage.
I need not remind you how magnificently, all through the life of our typical example, this quality was stamped upon every utterance and every act. It reached its climax, no doubt, in his bearding Herod and Herodias. But moral characteristics do not reach a climax unless there has been much underground building to bear the lofty pinnacle; and no man, when great occasions come to him, develops a courage and an unwavering confidence which are strange to his habitual life. There must be the underground building; and there must have been many a fighting down of fears, many a curbing of tremors, many a rebuke of hesitations and doubts in the gaunt, desert-loving prophet, before he was man enough to stand before Herod and say, ‘It is not lawful for thee to have her.’
No doubt there is much to be laid to the account of temperament, but whatever their temperament may be, the way to this unwavering courage and firm, clear ring of indubitable certainty, is open to every Christian man and woman; and it is our own fault, our own sin, and our own weakness, if we do not possess these qualities. Temperament! what on earth is the good of our religion if it is not to modify and govern our temperament? Has a man a right to jib on one side, and give up the attempt to clear the fence, because he feels that in his own natural disposition there is little power to take the leap? Surely not. Jesus Christ came here for the very purpose of making our weakness strong, and if we have a firm hold upon Him, then, in the measure in which His love has permeated our whole nature, will be our unwavering courage, and out of weakness we shall be made strong.
Of course the highest type of this undaunted boldness and unwavering firmness of conviction is not in John and his like. He presented strength in a lower form than did the Master from whom his strength came. The willow has a beauty as well as the oak. Firmness is not obstinacy; courage is not rudeness. It is possible to have the iron hand in the velvet glove, not of etiquette-observing politeness, but of a true considerateness and gentleness. They who are likest Him that was ‘meek and lowly in heart,’ are surest to possess the unflinching resolve which set His face like a flint, and enabled Him to go unhesitatingly and unrecalcitrant to the Cross itself.
Do not let us forget, either, that John’s unwavering firmness wavered; that over the clear heaven of his convictions there did steal a cloud; that he from whom no violence could wrench his faith felt it slipping out of his grasp when his muscles were relaxed in the dungeon; and that he sent ‘from the prison’-which was the excuse for the message-to ask the question, ‘After all, art Thou He that should come?’
Nor let us forget that it was that very moment of tremulousness which Jesus Christ seized, in order to pour an unstinted flood of praise for the firmness of his convictions, on the wavering head of the Forerunner. So, if we feel that though the needle of our compass points true to the pole, yet when the compass-frame is shaken, the needle sometimes vibrates away from its true direction, do not let us be cast down, but believe that a merciful allowance is made for human weakness. This man was great; first, because he had such dauntless courage and firmness that, over his headless corpse in the dungeon at Machaerus, might have been spoken what the Regent Moray said over John Knox’s coffin, ‘Here lies one that never feared the face of man.’
II. Another element of true greatness that comes nobly out in the life with which I am dealing is its clear elevation above worldly good.
But whilst that is true, I seek, dear brethren, to urge this old threadbare lesson, always needed, never needed more than amidst the senselessly luxurious habits of this generation, needed in few places more than in a great commercial centre like that in which we live, that one indispensable element of true greatness and elevation of character is that, not the prophet and the preacher alone, but every one of us, should live high above these temptations of gross and perishable joys, should.
‘Scorn delights and live laborious days.’ No man has a right to be called ‘great’ if his aims are small. And the question is, not as modern idolatry of intellect, or, still worse, modern idolatry of success, often makes it out to be, Has he great capacities? or has he won great prizes? but has he greatly used himself and his life? If your aims are small you will never be great; and if your highest aims are but to get a good slice of this world’s pudding-no matter what powers God may have given you to use-you are essentially a small man.
I remember a vigorous and contemptuous illustration of St. Bernard’s, who likens a man that lives for these perishable delights which John spurned, to a spider spinning a web out of his own substance, and catching in it nothing but a wretched prey of poor little flies. Such a one has surely no right to be called a great man. Our aims rather than our capacity determine our character, and they who greatly aspire after the greatest things within the reach of men, which are faith, hope, charity, and who, for the sake of effecting these aspirations, put their heels upon the head of the serpent and suppress the animal in their nature, these are the men ‘great in the sight of the Lord.’
III. Another element of true greatness, taught us by our type, is fiery enthusiasm for righteousness.
I long that you and myself may be aflame for goodness, may be enthusiastic over plain morality, and may show that we are so by our daily life, by our rebuking the opposite, if need be, even if it take us into Herod’s chamber, and make Herodias our enemy for life.
IV. Lastly, observe the final element of greatness in this man-absolute humility of self-abnegation before Jesus Christ.
You remember how, in the face of many temptations, that attitude was maintained. The very message which he had to carry was full of temptations to a self-seeking man to assert himself. You remember the almost rough ‘No!’ with which, reiteratedly, he met the suggestions of the deputation from Jerusalem that sought to induce him to say that he was more than he knew himself to be, and how he stuck by that infinitely humble and beautiful saying, ‘I am a voice’-that is all. You remember how the whole nation was in a kind of conspiracy to tempt him to assert himself, and was ready to break into a flame if he had dropped a spark, for all men were musing in their heart whether he was the Christ or not,’ and all the lawless and restless elements would have been only too glad to gather round him, if he had declared himself the Messiah. Remember how his own disciples came to him, and tried to play upon his jealousy and to induce him to assert himself: ‘Master, He whom thou didst baptize’-and so didst give Him the first credentials that sent men on His course-’has outstripped thee, and all men are coming to Him.’ And you remember the lovely answer that opened such depths of unexpected tenderness in the rough nature: ‘He that hath the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom heareth the voice; and that is enough to fill my cup with joy to the very brim.’ And what conceptions of Jesus Christ had John, that he thus bowed his lofty crest before Him, and softened his heart into submission almost abject? He knew Him to be the coming Judge, with the fan in His hand, who could baptize with fire, and he knew Him to be ‘the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.’ Therefore he fell before Him.
Brethren, we shall not be ‘great in the sight of the Lord’ unless we copy that example of utter self-abnegation before Jesus Christ. Thomas a Kempis says somewhere, ‘He is truly great who is small in his own sight, and thinks nothing of the giddy heights of worldly honour.’ You and I know far more of Jesus Christ than John the Baptist did. Do we bow ourselves before Him as he did? The Source from which he drew his greatness is open to us all. Let us begin with the recognition of the Lamb of God that takes away the world’s sin, and with it ours. Let the thought of what He is, and what He has done for us, bow us in unfeigned submission. Let it shatter all dreams of our own importance or our own desert. The vision of the Lamb of God, and it only, will crush in our hearts the serpent’s eggs of self-esteem and self-regard.
Then, let our closeness to Jesus Christ, and our experience of His power, kindle in us the fiery enthusiasm with which He baptizes all His true servants, and let it because we know the sweetnesses that excel, take from us all liability to be tempted away by the vulgar and coarse delights of earth and of sense. Let us keep ourselves clear of the babble that is round about us, and be strong because we grasp Christ’s hand.
I have been speaking about no characteristic which may not be attained by any man, woman, or child amongst us. ‘The least in the kingdom of heaven’ may be greater than John. It is a poor ambition to seek to be called ‘great.’ It is a noble desire to be ‘great in the sight of the Lord.’ And if we will keep ourselves close to Jesus Christ that will be attained. It will matter very little what men think of us, if at last we have praise from the lips of Him who poured such praise on His servant. We may, if we will. And then it will not hurt us though our names on earth be dark and our memories perish from among men..
‘Of so much fame in heaven expect the meed.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
in the sight of = before.
See note on “before”, Luk 1:6.
shall drink neither = shallin no wise (Greek. ou me. App-105.) drink,
strong drink. Greek. sikera, any intoxicating drink not from grapes.
shall be filled. Verbs of filling take the Genitive of what the person or vessel is filled with. See App-101. note. Here pneuma hagion is in the Genitive case.
the Holy Ghost = holy spirit. Greek pneuma hagion, or “power from on high”. See App-101.
from. Greek ek. App-104. i.e. before birth. Compare Luk 1:44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
15.] . . ., signifying the spiritual nature of his office and influence.
The priests were similarly prohibited to drink strong drink; and the Nazarites even more rigidly: see reff.
. = (from , inebriatus est),-any strong liquor not made from grapes. [Wiclif renders He schal not drynke wyne ne sidir.]
. . . is a contrast to, and a reason for, the not drinking wine nor strong drink: compare Eph 5:18.
Olshausen and Meyer think that (comparing Luk 1:44) the meaning is, the Holy Spirit should in some wonderful manner act on the child even before his birth. But (see reff.) this is not necessary,-nay, would it not rather be in this case ? The seems to fix the prior limit of the indwelling of the Spirit, at his birth. Meyer grounds his view on the meaning of as distinguished from , and takes the construction as embracing both particulars-he shall be so in, and shall become so from So likewise Bleek, and Hoffmann, Weiss. und Erfll. ii. 250 f.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 1:15. , shall be) viz. that son shall be.-, the Lord) God the Father is meant. Presently after he speaks also of the Holy Spirit and of the Son of God. Already, in connection with the forerunner of the Messiah, the economy of the Holy Trinity more fully expands itself to view.- , and wine and strong drink he shall not drink) So also Jdg 13:4, . is from the Hebr. , and denotes all drink distinct from wine, and yet intoxicating, as the juice of the date, malt liquor, etc. Such abstinence was enjoined on John, also on the mother of Samson.-, and) Similarly, being filled with the Holy Spirit, is put in antithesis to being drunk with wine, Eph 5:18.-, from) An abbreviated mode of expression: meaning, in the womb (Luk 1:41; Luk 1:44) and subsequently [from that time forward].
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
great: Luk 7:28, Gen 12:2, Gen 48:19, Jos 3:7, Jos 4:14, 1Ch 17:8, 1Ch 29:12, Mat 11:9-19, Joh 5:35
and shall: Luk 7:33, Num 6:2-4, Jdg 13:4-6, Mat 11:18
filled: Zec 9:15, Act 2:4, Act 2:14-18, Eph 5:18
even: Psa 22:9, Jer 1:5, Gal 1:15
Reciprocal: Lev 10:9 – Do not Num 6:3 – General 1Ki 18:12 – from my youth 2Ki 4:8 – a great woman Pro 20:11 – General Ecc 12:1 – Remember Isa 49:1 – The Lord Jer 35:6 – Ye shall Lam 4:7 – Nazarites Eze 44:21 – General Mat 5:19 – great Mat 11:11 – a greater Mat 20:2 – he sent Mar 1:2 – Behold Luk 1:32 – shall be great Luk 1:41 – the babe Luk 1:67 – filled Luk 1:80 – the child Luk 7:27 – Behold Joh 1:6 – a man Joh 14:26 – Holy Ghost 2Ti 3:15 – from
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5
Great in the sight of the Lord whether the world admired him or not. Drink neither wine nor strong drink was a qualification of a Nazarite under the law (Num 6:1-4). During his entire life he was to be under the guidance of the Spirit.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.
[Neither wine nor strong drink.] That is, if the Jews may be our interpreters properly enough, “neither new nor old wine”; Num 6:3. Greek, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. Targum, He shall separate himself from wine new and old. So Deu 14:26.
“R. Jose of Galilee saith, Why doth the Scripture double it, wine and strong drink? For is not wine strong drink, and strong drink wine?” Strong drink is wine no doubt, Num 28:7; Thou shalt cause the strong wine to be poured out before the Lord. Targum, a drink offering of old wine.
Whilst I a little more narrowly consider that severe interdiction by which the Nazarite was forbidden the total use of the vine, not only that he should not drink of the wine, but not so much as taste of the grape, not the pulp nor stone of the grape, no, not the bark of the vine; I cannot but call to mind,
I. Whether the vine might not be the tree in paradise that had been forbidden to Adam, by the tasting of which he sinned. The Jewish doctors positively affirm this without any scruple.
II. Whether that law about the Nazarites had not some reference to Adam while he was under that prohibition in the state of innocency. For if the bodily and legal uncleannesses, about which there are such strict precepts, Numbers 5, especially the leprosy, the greatest of all uncleannesses, did excellently decipher the state and nature of sin; might not the laws about Nazarites which concerned the greatest purities in a most pure religion, be something in commemoration of the state of man before his fall?
There was, as the doctors call it, the wine of command; which they were bound by precept to drink. Such was “that wine of the tithes,” Deu 12:17-18; that twas commanded to be drunk at Jerusalem, and the cup of wine to be drunk at the Passover. What must the Nazarite do in this case? If he drink, he violates the command of his order; if he do not drink, he breaks the command about tithes and the laws of his fathers. Let Elias untie this knot when he comes.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Luk 1:15. He shall be great in the sight of the Lord. Spiritual, not temporal, greatness is promised.
Neither wine nor strong drink. Sikera, the Greek word here used, refers to liquors of an intoxicating character, not prepared from grapes. He was to be a Nazarite (see Numbers 6). Such vows were not unusual in New Testament times (see Act 21:24). John ranks with Isaac, as a son begotten in old age; with Samson and Samuel, as granted to the barren in answer to prayer, and as a Nazarite (comp. Jdg 13:5;1Sa 1:12).
Filled with the Holy Ghost, not with wine (comp. Eph 5:18).
Even from his mothers womb. From his very birth, hence the Holy Spirit may work in and on infants.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 15
Neither wine nor strong drink; that is, like the ancient prophets, he shall lead a life of abstemiousness and self-denial.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
1:15 For he shall be great in the {o} sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor {p} strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.
(o) So the Hebrews say when a rare kind of excellency is signified: so it is said of Nimrod in Gen 10:9 , “He was a mighty hunter before the LORD”.
(p) Any drink that might make someone drunk.