Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 22:15
And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:
15. With desire I have desired ] i.e. I earnestly desired. A Hebraism. Mat 13:14, &c.
to eat this passover ] The expression may perhaps point to the fact that this was not the actual Jewish Paschal meal, but one which was intended to supersede it by a Passover of far more divine significance.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
With desire I have desired – This is a Hebrew form of expression, and means I have greatly desired. The reasons why he desired this we may suppose to have been:
- That, as he was about to leave them, he was desirous once of seeing them together, and of partaking with them of one of the religious privileges of the Jewish dispensation. Jesus was man as well as God, and he never undervalued the religious rites of his country, or the blessings of social and religious contact; and there is no impropriety in supposing that even he might feel that his human nature might be prepared by the service of religion for his great and terrible sufferings.
- He doubtless wished to take an opportunity to prepare them for his sufferings, and to impress upon them more fully the certainty that he was about to leave them, that they might be prepared for it.
- We may also suppose that he particularly desired it that he might institute for their use, and for the edification of all Christians, the supper which is called by his name – the Lords Supper. All his sufferings were the expression of love to his people, and he was desirous of testifying always his regard for their comfort and welfare.
Before I suffer – Before I die.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. With desire I have desired] A Hebraism for, I have desired most earnestly. Our Lord’s meaning seems to be, that, having purposed to redeem a lost world by his blood, he ardently longed for the time in which he was to offer himself up. Such love did the holy Jesus bear to the human race. This eucharistic passover was celebrated once, by way of anticipation, before the bloody sacrifice of the victim of salvation, and before the deliverance it was appointed to commemorate; as the figurative passover had been likewise once celebrated before the going out of Egypt, and the deliverance of God’s chosen people. Quesnel.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
See Poole on “Mat 26:20“, and following verses to Mat 26:30, where is opened whatsoever Luke hath that is not in the other evangelists.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. With desire . . .desired“earnestly have I longed” (as Ge31:30, “sore longedst”). Why? It was to be His last”before He suffered”and so became “Christ ourPassover sacrificed for us” (1Co5:7), when it was “fulfilled in the Kingdom of God,”the typical ordinance thenceforth disappearing.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he said unto them,…. The twelve apostles, as they were eating the passover, it being usual to talk and converse much at such a time; [See comments on Mt 26:21].
With desire have I desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer; not for the sake of eating; for though he was traduced as a glutton, and did often eat and drink in a free and familiar way, both at the tables of Pharisees, and of publicans and sinners; yet he was not a man given to appetite; witness his fast of forty days and forty nights, and his great negligence of himself, which sometimes obliged his disciples to pray him to eat; see Joh 4:31. Indeed, according to the Jewish canons, it was not judged proper that a man should eat much on the day before the passover, that he might be hungry, and eat the passover, , “with desire” l, or with an appetite. Our Lord may allude to this; but this was not the thing he meant; nor merely does he say this on account of the passover, as it was God’s ordinance; though as he was made under the law, and that was in his heart, he had a great regard to it, and a delight in it, which he had shown in his frequent and constant attendance on it from his youth: but though he had kept many passovers, yet of none of them did he say what he does of this, which was his fourth passover from his entrance on his public ministry, and his last: two reasons are suggested in the text why he so greatly desired to eat this passover; the one is, because he should eat it “with” his disciples; an emphasis lies on the phrase, “with you”, to whom, and not so much to the passover, and the eating of that, was his desire; as it is to all his people: it was so from everlasting, when he desired them as his spouse and bride; and in time, when he became incarnate, suffered, died, and gave himself for them: his desire is towards them whilst in unregeneracy, that they may be converted; and to them when converted, notwithstanding all their backslidings and revoltings. His desire is to their persons, and the comeliness and beauty of them, which he himself has put upon them; and to their graces, and the exercise of them, with which he is ravished; and to their company and communion with them, which he chooses and delights in: and his desire is towards their being with him to all eternity, and which he delighted in the fore views of from eternity; and is the joy set before him, and which carried him through his sufferings and death; and is the amount and accomplishment of all his prayers and intercession: and the other reason of this his strong desire in the text is, that this was the last passover, and that his sufferings and death were just at hand, and which he longed to have over; not that he desired these sufferings, for the sake of them, which could not be agreeable to, and desirable by his human nature; but because of the effects of them; since hereby justice would be satisfied, the law would be fulfilled, sin atoned for, and the salvation of his elect obtained; for whom he bore the strongest affection, and whom he loved with a love of complacency, and whose salvation he most earnestly desired, and even sufferings for the sake of it.
l Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Pesachim, c. 10. sect. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
With desire I have desired ( ). A Hebraism common in the LXX. Associative instrumental case of substantive and first aorist active indicative of same like a cognate accusative. Peculiar to Luke is all this verse. See this idiom in John 3:29; Acts 4:17.
Before I suffer ( ). Preposition with articular infinitive and accusative of general reference, “before the suffering as to me.” is second aorist active infinitive of .
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
With desire I have desired. Expressing intense desire. Compare Joh 3:29, rejoiceth with joy; Act 4:17, threaten with threatening.
19 – 20. Compare Mt 26:26 – 29. Mr 14:22 – 25. 1Co 11:23 – 25.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And he said unto them,” (kai eipen pros autous) “And he said very personally to them,” in privacy with His church disciples, the apostles in particular; those sitting with Him.
2) “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you,” (eipthumia epithumesa touto to pascha phagein meth’ humon) “With deep desire I desired to eat this passover with you all.” With intense desire is the idea, Luk 12:50; A word of testimony given only by Luke, Heb 9:11-12; Heb 9:26; Heb 10:1-9; 1Co 5:7. This last passover ended a Divine era.
3) “Before I suffer” (pro tou me pathein) “Before the experience I am to suffer,” before my crucifixion.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(15) With desire I have desired.The peculiar mode of expressing intensity by the use of a cognate noun with the verb of action, though found sometimes in other languages, is an idiom characteristically Hebrew (comp. thou shalt surely die for dying thou shalt die, in Gen. 2:17), and its use here suggests the thought that St. Luke heard what he reports from some one who repeated the very words which our Lord had spoken in Aramaic. The whole passage is peculiar to him, and implies that he had sought to fill up the gaps in the current oral teaching which is reproduced in St. Matthew and St. Mark. It was natural that in so doing he might feel some uncertainty as to the precise position of these supplementary incidents, and hence the difficulties, of no great importance, which present themselves on a comparison of the three narratives. The words now before us bear obviously the impression of having been spoken at the beginning of the Feast. The Master yearned, if we may so speak, for a last Passover with His friends, as we yearn for a last Communion with ours; all the more so, we may believe, because it was in His purpose to perfect the former by transfiguring it into the latter. The words have been thought to confirm the view that our Lord was anticipating by twenty-four hours the strictly legal time of the Passover. It must be admitted, however, that they-do not in themselves suggest that thought. All that can be said is that they fall in with it, if proved on independent evidence.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. With desire I have desired The Hebrew mode of saying I have had a most intense desire. The deep emotion of the Saviour at coming to the hour of his last converse with his chosen ones, fills his language with an exquisite pathos. And these last hours were to be devoted to instituting the symbols of his own death. He was to die, be emblematically slain before them, and to appoint the ever-continued repetition of that symbolical death in his Church through future ages. No wonder that he had looked forward to that supper with earnest emotion, and had well provided that it should be an hour upon whose sacred privacy no enemy but one should intrude.
The present passage (15-18) narrates that part of the supper which belonged to the Passover. That which belonged to the institution of the Lord’s Supper is Luk 22:19-20. See notes on Mat 26:26, with introductory note preceding.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he said to them, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer,” ’
Jesus’ strong words here, which are a clear translation of an Aramaic idiom ‘desiring I have desired’), stress how important this Passover meal is to Him. There is a similarity of urgency here with His previous words, ‘I am come to cast fire on the earth and would that it were already kindled, I have a baptism to be baptised with and how I am straitened until it be accomplished’ (Luk 12:49). He had steadfastly set His face towards Jerusalem for this purpose, and now the time had come. He Himself was going forward towards the suffering that He had predicted and it was in the light of that that He had this great and burning desire to eat ‘this Passover’ (either the Passover meal or Passover lamb, the word could indicate either) with them beforehand. He had wanted to share with them His last hours and His last Passover. Soon He would no longer be with them, and He knew how much they would miss Him. We are probably also to see in it how much, humanly speaking, He would miss them and regretted having to leave them, even though He knew that it was for their good. It may also indicate His eagerness that what was now about to happen should be over as quickly as possible, i.e. ‘I have been earnestly waiting for this’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Luk 22:15. With desire I have desired This is a Hebraism, signifying a very fervent and longing desire: “I have longed greatly,” said he, “to eat this passover with you before I suffer, because it is the last I shall ever celebrate with you, and because I desire, before my death, to give you the strongest proofs of my love.” The proofs that he had in view were, his setting them pattern of humility and love, by washing their feet;his instructing them in the nature of his death, as a propitiatory sacrifice;his instituting the sacrament of the supper, in commemoration of his sufferings;his comforting them by the tender discourses recorded by St. John, Joh 14:16 : in which he gave them a variety of excellent advice, and many gracious promises;last of all, his recommending them solemnly by prayer to the protection and guidance of his heavenly Father. The magnanimity which our Lord discovers in the expression before us, is beyond conception: it implies, that although he knew this supper would be the last he should celebrate with his disciples, and that he should rise from it but a few hours before he suffered the most cruel insults and torments, which would end in his death; yet such was his love to his faithful people, such his desire to glorify his heavenly Father, that no passover was ever so welcome to him as this.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
11 And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?
12 And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished: there make ready.
13 And they went, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover.
14 And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him.
15 And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:
Ver. 15. With desire have I desired ] How much more should we come with strong affections and lusty appetites to this holy supper! It is a virtue here to be a holy glutton, and to drink hearty draughts; that we may go from the table, as Christ from Jordan, full of the Holy Ghost. For this end consider what is before thee, as Pro 23:1 , not to restrain appetite, but to provoke it. And the rather because Christ thus earnestly thirsted after our salvation, though he knew it should cost him so dear. See Luk 12:50 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
15 18. ] Peculiar to Luke . The desire of our Lord to eat this His last Passover may be explained from ch. Luk 12:50 : not merely from his depth of love for His disciples, though this formed an element in it, see Joh 13:1 sq. The in Luk 22:16 gives us the leading reason.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
15. ] This is the only instance in the Gospels, of the absolute use of , as in the Creed, ‘ He suffered .’ We have several times , ch. Luk 9:22 ; Luk 17:25 : Mat 16:21 alli [113] . , ch. Luk 24:26 , and , ditto Luk 22:46 .
[113] alli= some cursive mss.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 22:15 . : the last passover He will eat with them is looked forward to with solemn, tender feeling.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
unto. Greek. pros. App-104.
With desire I have desired = I have earnestly desired. Figure of speech Polyptoton (App-6). See note on Gcn. Luk 26:28.
this passover. Not the eating of the Lamb, but the Chagigah or feast which preceded it = this [as) a Pass-over.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
15-18.] Peculiar to Luke. The desire of our Lord to eat this His last Passover may be explained from ch. Luk 12:50 : not merely from his depth of love for His disciples, though this formed an element in it,-see Joh 13:1 sq. The in Luk 22:16 gives us the leading reason.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 22:15. , and) There is described in the verses 15-18, a kind of prelude, as it were, to the Holy Supper. Comp. Mat 26:29.-, I have desired) He had desired for the sake of the disciples, to whom He wished now at last to manifest Himself more openly in His very act of bidding them farewell; He had desired it for His own sake also, because He was about forthwith after it to enter into His glory.-) this, which is a Passover peculiarly memorable.-, before) By this word, explanation is given of the , this. [His enemies were hardly leaving Him this much time (viz. sufficient to celebrate the Passover): but yet they were forced to delay the accomplishment of their purpose, even until both the Passover banquet and several remaining incidents had passed by.-V. g.]
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
With desire I have desired: or, I have heartily desired, Luk 12:50, Joh 4:34, Joh 13:1, Joh 17:1
Reciprocal: Deu 16:2 – sacrifice Mat 26:2 – know Mat 26:29 – I will Mat 26:46 – General 1Th 2:17 – endeavoured
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
CHRIST AND THE PASSOVER
And He said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer.
Luk 22:15
What were the reasons why the Saviour desired so earnestly to join in this last Passover before He suffered?
I. The Passover had now reached its end and found its full meaning.
II. For the support of His own soul in the approaching struggle.
III. His friends needed special comfort.
IV. It looked forward to all the future of His Church and people.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
5
This was the fourth Passover Jesus ate after his baptism, according to Joh 2:13; Joh 5:1; Joh 6:4; Joh 13:1.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 22:15. With desire I have desired. A Hebrew form of expression, denoting strong desire.
To eat this Passover. This refers to this Passover itself, not to the Lords Supper, which it introduced. One ground of the strong desire was the certainty that it would be the last one, hence peculiarly solemn and important.
With you. Emphatic, it was the eating with them which He so strongly desired.
Before I suffer. The expression occurs in this absolute sense only here in the Gospels. The certainty that this was the last Passover with them rested on the certainty of His sufferings for them; hence the affectionateness of His desire, that before His Passion He might have this privilege. The feast at its very beginning takes on a farewell character.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
22:15 And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I {f} suffer:
(f) I am put to death.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jesus’ words of welcome 22:15-16
These verses record Jesus’ introduction to what followed and are similar to the welcoming words of a host before his guests begin their meal. This is the seventh of nine meal scenes that Luke recorded in his Gospel (cf. Luk 5:29-32; Luk 7:36-50; Luk 9:12-17; Luk 10:38-42; Luk 11:37-54; Luk 14:1-24; Luk 22:14-20; Luk 24:28-32; Luk 24:36-42).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Jesus’ great desire (Gr. epithymia epethymesa, lit. "with desire I have desired") to eat this meal with the Twelve was due to the teaching that He would give them. It also arose from the fact that this would be His last fellowship meal with them. It was also the last Passover to be celebrated under the old Mosaic Covenant.
"With a Sacrament did Jesus begin His Ministry: it was that of separation and consecration in Baptism. With a second Sacrament did He close His Ministry: it was that of gathering together and fellowship in the Lord’s Supper." [Note: Edersheim, 2:491.]