Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 1:37
For with God nothing shall be impossible.
37. nothing ] Rather, no word. For the thought see Gen 18:14; Mat 19:26. “There is nothing too hard for thee,” Jer 32:17.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Luk 1:37
Nothing shall be impossible
Gods omnipotence
It certainly is not possible for us to be in a position where omnipotence cannot assist us.
God hath servants everywhere; and, where we think He has none, His word can create a multitude. There are treasures hid in the sand, and the Lords chosen shall eat thereof. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The scorn of impossibility
It is not a lucky word, this same impossible: no good comes of those who have it so often in their mouth. Who is he that says always, There is a lion in the way? Sluggard, thou must slay the lion, then; the way has to be travelled. In art, in practice, innumerable critics will demonstrate that most things are henceforth impossible; that we are got, once for all, into the region of perennial commonplace, and must contentedly continue there. Let such critics demonstrate; it is the nature of them: what harm is in it? Poetry once demonstrated to be impossible, arises the Burns, arises the Goethe. Unheroic commonplace being now clearly all we have to look for, comes Napoleon, comes the conquest of the world. It was proved by fluxionary calculus, that steamships could never get across from the farthest point of Ireland to the nearest of Newfoundland: impelling force, resisting force, maximum here, minimum there, by law of Nature and geometric demonstration. What could be done? The Great Eastern could weigh anchor from Bristol Port; that could be done. The Great Eastern, bounding safe through the gullets of the Hudson, threw her cable out on the capstan of New York, and left our still moist-paper demonstration to dry itself at leisure. Impossible he, cried Mirabeau, ne me dites jamais ce bete de mot (Never name to me that blockhead of a word). (Thomas Carlyle.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 37. For with God nothing shall be impossible.] Words of the very same import with those spoken by the Lord to Sarah, when he foretold the birth of Isaac, Ge 18:14, Is any thing too hard for the Lord? As there can be no doubt that Mary perceived this allusion to the promise and birth of Isaac, so she must have had her faith considerably strengthened by reflecting on the intervention of God in that case.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
37. For, &c.referring towhat was said by the angel to Abraham in like case (Ge18:14), to strengthen her faith.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For with God nothing shall be impossible. That is consistent with his nature and perfections, with his counsels, purposes, and promises: every thing that he has said, purposed, or promised, he is able to do, and will; every word that he has spoken, every thing predicted by his prophets, or declared by his angels, and particularly this of a virgin’s conceiving and bearing a Son: so that the angel not only answers her question, how this should be, but confirms her faith in it; partly by the instance of her cousin Elisabeth, and partly by observing the infinite omnipotence of God.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
No word ( ). brings out the single item rather than the whole content (). So in verse 38.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
With God nothing shall be impossible [ ] . JRhma, word, as distinguished from logov, word, in classical Greek, signifies a constituent part of a speech or writing, as distinguished from the contents as a whole. Thus it may be either a word or a saying. Sometimes a phrase, as opposed to onoma, a single word. The distinction in the New Testament is not sharp throughout. It is maintained that rJhma in the New Testament, like the Hebrew gabar, stands sometimes for the subject matter of the word; the thing, as in this passage. But there are only two other passages in the New Testament where this meaning is at all admissible, though the word occurs seventy times. These are Luk 2:15; Act 5:32. “Kept all these things” (Luk 2:19), should clearly be sayings, as the A. V. itself has rendered it in the almost identical passage, verse 51. In Act 5:32, Rev. gives sayings in margin. In Luk 2:15, though A. V. and Rev. render thing, the sense is evidently saying, as appears both from the connection with the angelic message and from the following words, which has come to pass : the saying which has become a fact. The Rev. rendering of this passage is, therefore, right, though a little stilted : No word of God shall be void of power; for the A. V. errs in joining oujk and pan, not every, and translating nothing. The two do not belong together. The statement is, Every [] word of God shall not [] be powerless. The A. V. also follows the reading, para tw Qew, with God; but all the later texts read para tou Qeou, from God, which fixes the meaning beyond question.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For with God,” (hoti para tou theou) “Because with (in association with, alongside of) God,” in harmony with God, Mat 19:26. For God is omnipotent, Gen 18:14. No word of God is void of power.
2) “Nothing shall be impossible.” (ouk adunatesei) “Not a thing will be impossible,” a faith expressed by Abraham, Rom 4:19-21; Heb 11:17-19. The tense expresses the idea that nothing ever has been or ever will be impossible with God. It should seem no more strange that Mary, the virgin, should conceive, without “knowing a man,” than that Elizabeth should, so aged, though she knew a man.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
37. For no word shall be impossible with God If we choose to take ῥη̑μα, word, in its strict and native sense, the meaning is, that God will do what he hath promised, for no hinderance can resist his power. The argument will be, God hath promised, and therefore he will accomplish it; for we ought not to allege any impossibility in opposition to his word But as a word often means a thing in the idiom of the Hebrew language, (which the Evangelists followed, though they wrote in Greek,) (30) we explain it more simply, that nothing is impossible with God We ought always, in- deed, to hold it as a maxim, that they wander widely from the truth who, at their pleasure, imagine the power of God to be something beyond his word; for we ought always to contemplate his boundless power, that it may strengthen our hope and confidence. But it is idle, and unprofitable, and even dangerous, to argue what God can do unless we also take into account what he resolves to do. The angel does here what God frequently does in Scripture, employs a general doctrine to confirm one kind of promise. This is the true and proper use of a general doctrine, to apply its scattered promises to the present subject, whenever we are uneasy or distressed; for so long as they retain their general form, they make little impression upon us. We need not wonder if Mary is reminded by the angel of the power of God; for our distrust of it diminishes very greatly our confidence in the promises. All acknowledge in words that God is Almighty; but, if he promises any thing beyond what we are able to comprehend, we remain in doubt. (31) Whence comes this but from our ascribing to his power nothing more than what our senses receive? Thus Paul, commending the faith of Abraham, says, that he
“
gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform,” (Rom 4:20.)
In another passage, speaking of the hope of eternal life, he sets before him the promise of God. “I know,” says he,
“
whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him,” (2Ti 1:12.)
This may seem to be a small portion of faith; for no man, however wicked, openly denies God’s claim to be Almighty. But he who has the power of God firmly and thoroughly fixed in his heart will easily surmount the other obstacles which present themselves to faith. It ought to be observed, however, that the power of God is viewed by true faith, if I may use the expression, as efficacious (32) For God is and wishes to be acknowledged as powerful, that by the accomplishment itself he may prove his faithfulness.
(30) “ Laquelle ont suivie les Evangelistes, combien qu’ils escrivissent en Grec.” — Fr.
(31) “ Haesitamus.” — “We are in a state of uncertainty, without being able to convince ourselves of it.” — “ Nous sommes en branle sans pouvoir nous y asseurer.” — Fr.
(32) “ Effectualem.” — “We must observe that true faith apprehends the power of God, not in the air, but with its results.” — “ Il faut noter que la vraye foy apprehende la puissance de Dieu, non point en l’alr, mais avec ses effects.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
37. Nothing shall be impossible Ages ago (Gen 18:14) “The LORD” had said in a similar announcement to Abraham, “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” The angel refers to the analogous case of Elisabeth as proof to Mary that miraculous birth is an event that may now occur. The birth of an immortal being into existence is the greatest of natural events. The birth of an immortal being, without a human father, by a divine interposition, is one of the greatest of miracles. The birth of a human being from a true divine paternity, placing a God-man upon earth, is pre-eminently THE miracle of which all other miracles are but the subordinates and attendants. But all things are possible with God. To perform a contradiction is, indeed, not a possibility even with omnipotence. But then a contradiction is really nothing at all, and so does not come into the number of all things. God is fully able to suspend by miracle the laws of nature, and even reverse them all. For the laws of nature are nothing more than the ordinary action of the divine will, which God can vary just as easily as he can hold them uniform. The incarnation is just as easy a work with God as a maintenance of the ordinary laws of birth.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.
Ver. 37. For with God, &c. ] We never doubt God’s will, but we do in some measure doubt his power. See them both running parallel,Job 42:2Job 42:2 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
37. ] The future, in Hebrew, expresses that which does not belong to any fixed time, but shall ever be so.
] See reff., and above on Luk 1:4 . This place, and its original, Gen 18:14 , which are sometimes quoted to shew that may mean simply “a thing ,” are in fact most decisive against any such supposition. For the declaration amounts to this, “Hath the Lord spoken and can He not do it?”
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 1:37 . : the verb means, in classic Greek, to be weak, of persons. In Sept [5] and N. T. (here and in Mat 17:20 ) it means to be impossible, of things. Commentators differ as to whether we should render: no word of God shall be weak, inoperative, or no thing , with, on the part of, God, shall be impossible. = may be rendered either word or thing . The reading ( [6] [7] [8] ) seems to demand the former of the two translations. Field, Otium Nor. , discusses this passage. Adopting the above reading, and adhering to the sense of . in reference to things, he translates: “for from God no word (or no thing) shall be impossible”.
[5] Septuagint.
[6] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
[7] Codex Bezae
[8] Codex Regius–eighth century, represents an ancient text, and is often in agreement with and B.
Some recent critics find in this section two different views of the birth of Jesus, one implying natural paternity, the other supernatural causality, the former being the view in the original document, the other introduced by the evangelist, the former Jewish in its tendency of thought, the latter heathen-Christian. The subject is discussed by Hillmann in Jahrb. fr prot. Theol. , 1891, and Usener, Religions-geschictliche Untersuchungen , 1888. J. Weiss, in his ed. of Meyer, p. 303, note, seems inclined to favour this view, and to see in Luk 1:31-33 the one version, and in Luk 1:34-35 the other, due to Lk. Against this view vide Feine, Vork. berlief .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
nothing = not (Greek. ou. App-105) any word. Greek. rhema. See note on Mar 9:32.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
37.] The future, in Hebrew, expresses that which does not belong to any fixed time, but shall ever be so.
] See reff., and above on Luk 1:4. This place, and its original, Gen 18:14, which are sometimes quoted to shew that may mean simply a thing, are in fact most decisive against any such supposition. For the declaration amounts to this, Hath the Lord spoken and can He not do it?
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 1:37. , every word [thing]) As to things contradictory in the very terms, whether such are possible to happen, is not a subject which need be disputed; for they do not constitute a word [in the sense , verbum, is here used, a true word or thing]: nor does a thing done and undone, i.e. true and false [a word verified and then falsified], constitute a word; for repentance of His deed or promise does not apply to God: Gen 18:14, ; Is any word impossible with God? (Surely not.)
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
with: Luk 18:27, Gen 18:14, Num 11:23, Job 13:2, Jer 32:17, Jer 32:27, Zec 8:6, Mat 19:26, Mar 10:27, Phi 3:21
Reciprocal: Num 22:28 – the Lord opened 1Ki 17:16 – the barrel 2Ki 3:18 – And this Dan 3:17 – our God Dan 6:20 – able Mat 17:20 – nothing Mat 22:29 – nor Mar 12:24 – neither Act 26:8 – General Rom 4:21 – he was able
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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This verse is the angel’s explanation of the two miracles of conception. God cannot do anything wrong, but nothing is impossible with Him because it is too hard.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 1:37. For, indicates that what was told of Elisabeth had occurred through the power of God.
No word from God shall be without power. This affirms, not only Gods almightiness, but even more fully His absolute faithfulness to His promises, the thought most necessary for Mary. The denial of what is miraculous is the denial of both almightiness and faithfulness.