Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 9:41
And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither.
41. O faithless and perverse generation ] Doubtless the Spirit of Jesus was wrung by the contrast so immortally portrayed in the great picture of Raphael between the peace and glory which He had left on the mountain, and this scene of weak faith, abject misery, and bitter opposition faltering disciples, degraded sufferers, and wrangling scribes.
how long shall I be with you? ] “He was hastening to His Father, yet could not go till He had led His disciples to faith. Their slowness troubled Him.” Bengel.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And Jesus answering, said,…. To the father of the child, and those that were with him; and with a particular view to the Scribes and Pharisees, who had been insulting the disciples, and triumphing over them, because of their inability to cast out the evil spirit: for the words are not spoken to the disciples, as they might seem at first view to be, and as the Persic version renders them, “and Jesus turned his face to the disciples, and said”; but to the unbelieving Jews,
O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? bring thy son hither;
[See comments on Mt 17:17].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
How long shall I be with you and bear with you? ( ;). Here the two questions of Mr 9:19 (only one in Mt 17:17) are combined in one sentence.
Bear with (, direct middle future) is, hold myself from you (ablative case ).
Faithless () is disbelieving and perverse (, perfect passive participle of ), is twisted, turned, or torn in two.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Faithless. See on Mr 9:19.
Perverse. See on Mt 17:17.
How long [ ] . Lit., until when.
Suffer [] . Better as Rev., bear with. See Act 18:14; 2Co 11:1. The literal meaning is to “bear up [] under.”
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And Jesus answering said,” (apokritheis de ho lesous eipen) “Then Jesus replying said,” to the man and to His disciples that He had sent forth, Luk 9:1; Mat 17:17.
2) “0 faithless and perverse generation,” (ho geneo apistos kai diestrammene) “0 unbelieving and perverted generation,” of the moment, Joh 14:12; Mat 17:17; Mar 9:19; They were much as Israel in the desert, Deu 32:5; as also described Psa 78:8; Joh 20:27; Heb 4:2.
3) “How long shall I be with you and suffer you?” (heos pote esomai pros humas kai aneksomai humon) “Until when shall I be with and endure you all?” Mat 17:17; Mar 9:19; Joh 4:48. He was troubled with their slowness of faith. He was anxious to be at the end of His trial, passion for mankind.
4) “Bring thy son hither.” (prosagage hode ton huion sou) “Just bring your son here,” Mat 17:17; Mat 14:18; Joh 15:5; Php_4:13.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
‘And Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and bear with you? Bring here your son.” ’
This is Jesus’ verdict on what He has found concerning the whole generation of Israel at that time. It included the great crowd, which was in such contrast to His Father as it stood there clamouring and disputing. But it was also very much a verdict on His failing Apostles. They were the ones who should have had faith. His words suggest that Jesus felt that His disciples should have been able to deal with the matter, even without Himself, and Peter, John and James being there. He clearly considers that the disciples’ own spiritual inadequacy was to blame, and He is grieved. It is because they have been dodging their quiet times with God
‘O faithless and perverse generation.’ As Jesus looks around at them he recognises in them their whole unbelieving generation. They are all unbelieving, including His own disciples. In contrast with the glory and love He has enjoyed in the mountain this return to the world is almost unbearable. For He has had to recognise that the first problem here was that all who were there, but especially the disciples, were lacking in faith. The failure was because they were perverse in their behaviour (compare Deu 32:5; Deu 32:20). And we learn from the other Gospels that this was because they did not pray enough (Mar 9:29). They did not dwell enough in their Father’s presence. They thought that they could get away with just relying on Jesus, and using Him as a crutch. They were spiritual cripples. Had they continually followed their Master’s example and spent more time in prayer they would not have failed here. We lose much through our failure to pray.
‘How long shall I be with you, and bear with you?’ Jesus had just been in His Father’s presence, enjoying the glory which had been His before He emptied Himself. What had happened here now brought home to Him the great contrast between that and His life on earth. For a brief moment we have unveiled the continual loss that Jesus must have felt at being deprived of what could have been His, and at His having to endure the contradictions of the world, and especially of His disciples, not out of self-pity, but simply because of the contradiction of it with His own divine nature. It must have sometimes been almost unbearable. When we think of His sufferings we tend to overlook the things that could continually have exasperated Him among those who loved Him, and how we must exasperate Him too.
How we view His words depends on the tone that we read into them. We are probably to see it as a little like the fond exasperation of a mother with an erring child when it has been delving in mud and dirt. It is accepted with equanimity, and a smile, but if only it would not! He would have many more exasperating experiences with His disciples yet (see Luk 9:46).
Jesus then told the father to bring his son to Him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Luk 9:41. Bring thy son hither. In St. Mark, Mar 9:19 the order is general; here our Lord addresses the father of the youth. After having rebuked the Scribes for their obstinacy, he turned to the young man’s father, and ordered him to bring his son to him.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
faithless = unbelieving.
Perverse = perverted.
with. Greek. pros. App-104. Not the same word as in verses: Luk 9:9, Luk 9:32 -, Luk 9:49.
suffer = bear with. Compare Act 18:14. 2Co 11:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
O faithless: Luk 8:25, Mar 9:19, Joh 20:27, Heb 3:19, Heb 4:2, Heb 4:11
perverse: Deu 32:5, Psa 78:8, Mat 3:7, Mat 12:39, Mat 12:45, Mat 16:4, Mat 23:36, Act 2:40
how: Exo 10:3, Exo 16:28, Num 14:11, Num 14:27, Jer 4:14, Mat 17:17, Joh 14:9
and suffer: Act 13:18, Rom 2:4, Heb 3:9-11
Bring: 2Ki 5:8, Mat 11:28, Mar 10:14, Mar 10:49, Heb 7:25
Reciprocal: Mat 6:30 – O ye Luk 11:29 – This is 2Co 12:21 – that I
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE CARE OF THE CHILD
O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you?
Luk 9:41
Christ is speaking to them all. He includes in the sweep of His censure the whole generation of them, parent and patient, and would-be physicians. He condemns them all.
You father! what have you been about, to let this horrid devil get hold of your child?
You child, how have you suffered the devil to possess you?
And you, disciples of Christ, how is it that agonized child and distracted father appeal to you, out of their misery, and appeal in vain? Heres a thing to hear of you: I besought Thy disciples to cast him out, and they could not.
I. The fathers ought to keep their children from all snares of the enemy.
II. The children ought to resist him and defeat him, strong in a strength not their own.
III. The disciples ought so to possess the spirit of Christ their Master, that they can rescue all lost souls, and with the very same power which Christ used, cast forth the devil, set the children free.
Now, as of old, our Lord calls for this service from parent, from child, from faithful follower; in each case He has already given the power if we will only use it. Not to triumph is unpardonable; we ought, we can, we must. Not to do so is to be faithless and perverse, and unworthy of the patience of Christ.
Rev. F. L. Cope.
Illustration
This is a time when the current sets more and more in the direction of trusting blindly to mere access of knowledge and training of the intellect to equip and endow our youth, and we know that that, however desirable, can do almost nothing in setting free from the slavery of sin. We do not want clever babies; we want good, strong Christian men and women. Let us not hide from ourselves that we are face to face with a youth of both sexes, as much a prey to the devil as ever the demoniac boy. I am not concerned to discuss the question of how we compare, better or worse, with other times or other people. I speak of what I know, and I say that the corruption of our children to-day, the bondage to evil is really alarming. How can our girls and boys stand against it? Where will you find the workshop or the office which does not ring with vile talk? Our dim-lit streets and lanes are a shame; there are scarcely any real homes; parents, for the purpose of warning, advising, encouraging their children in the hard battle for right, are practically no use. Silly wiseacres sagely discuss the causes of physical deterioration, and they dare not, or do not, look at the principal causes of all.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1
The faithless generation was said about the disciples, according to the statements in the verses cited at 38 and 40.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Vers. 41-43 a. The Answer.
The severe exclamation of Jesus: Faithless and perverse generation, etc., has been applied to the disciples (Meyer); to the scribes (Calvin); to the father (Chrysostom, Grotius, Neander, De Wette); to the people (Olshausen). The father in Mark acknowledges his unbelief; the scribes were completely under the power of this disposition; the people had been shaken by their influence; lastly, the disciplesso in Matthew Jesus expressly tells them when the scene was overhad been defeated in this case by their want of faith. All these various explanations, therefore, may be maintained. And the expression, , generation, the contemporary race, is sufficiently wide to comprehend all the persons present. After enjoying fellowship with celestial beings, Jesus suddenly finds Himself in the midst of a world where unbelief prevails in all its various degrees. It is therefore the contrast, not between one man and another, but between this entire humanity alienated from God, in the midst of which He finds Himself, and the inhabitants of heaven whom He has just left, which wrings from Him this mournful exclamation. , perverse, an expression borrowed from Deu 32:5.
The twice repeated question, how long…? is also explained by the contrast to the preceding scene. It is not an expression of impatience. The scene of the transfiguration has just proved, that if Jesus is still upon the earth, it is by His own free will. The term suffer you implies as much. But He feels Himself a stranger in the midst of this unbelief, and He cannot suppress a sigh for the time when His filial and fraternal heart will be no longer chilled at every moment by exhibitions of feeling opposed to His most cherished aspirations. The holy enjoyment of the night before has, as it were, made Him home-sick. , amongst you, in Luke and Mark, expresses a more active relation than , with you, in Matthew.
The command: Bring thy son hither, has something abrupt in it. Jesus seems anxious to shake off the painful feeling which possesses Him; comp. a similar expression, Joh 11:34.
There is a kind of gradation in the three narratives. Matthew, without mentioning the preceding attack, merely relates the cure; the essential thing for him is the conversation of Jesus with His disciples which followed. In Luke, the narrative of the cure is preceded by a description of the attack. Lastly, Mark, in describing the attack, relates the remarkable conversation which Jesus had with the father of the child. This conversation, which bears the highest marks of authenticity, neither allows us to admit that Mark drew his account from either of the others, or that they had his narrative, or a narrative anything like his, in their possession; how could Luke especially have voluntarily omitted such details?
We shall not analyze here the dialogue in Mark in which Jesus suddenly changes the question, whether He has power to heal, into another, whether His questioner has power to believe; after which, the latter, terrified at the responsibility thrown upon him by this turn being given to the question, invokes with anguish the power of Jesus to help his faith, which appears to him no better than unbelief. Nothing more profound or exquisite has come from the pen of any evangelist. It is the very photography of the human and paternal heart. And we are to suppose that the other evangelists had this masterpiece of Mark’s before their eyes, and mutilated it!
We find these two incidents in Luke mentioned also in the raising of the widow of Nain’s son: an only son (Luk 9:38): and He gave him to his father (Luk 9:42). They belong to Luke’s manner, says the critic. But ought not the original and characteristic details with which our Gospel is full to inspire a little more confidence in his narratives?
The conversation which followed this miracle, and which Luke omits, is one of the passages in which the unbelief of the apostles is most severely blamed. This omission does not prove, at any rate, that the sacred writer was animated with that feeling of ill-will towards the Twelve which criticism imputes to him.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Jesus’ statement to the father and the crowd (Luk 9:41) recalls Deu 32:20 where God rebuked the unbelieving Israelites in the wilderness. Jesus went on to express disappointment with these people’s lack of faith. By omitting the further conversation between Jesus and the father in which Jesus stressed the importance of faith in Him (cf. Mar 9:21-24), Luke focused attention on Jesus’ power. Luke also stressed Jesus’ compassion by noting that He gave the boy back to his father (Luk 9:42; cf. Luk 7:15).