Excuse
Excuse
EXCUSE.To make excuse (), Luk 14:18, means to avert displeasure by entreaty, to crave indulgence, to seek to be freed from an obligation or duty. (Cf. the use of excuse in Dampier, Voyages, ii. 1. 99: In the evening he sent me out of the palace, desiring to be excused that he could not entertain me all night), is used by Josephus exactly as here of declining an invitation (Ant. vii. viii. 2). (Luk 14:18-19) may be a Latinism for habe me excusatum, but see Meyer and Weiss contra.
These guests had evidently received a previous invitation, as is customary in the East, which they had accepted (Luk 14:16-17). Their unanimity, the absence of an adversative or , and the order of the words, combine to make a surprise when it comes (contrast Luk 14:15). They did not give a direct refusal, they were detained by certain hindrances which were not wrong in themselves, but they all showed the same spirit in rejecting the invitation because they preferred to follow their own inclinations. The first had bought a field, he was elated by his already acquired possessions (Trench, Parables), and alleged a necessity ( ); saepe concurrunt tempora gratiae acceptissima et mundana negotia urgentissima (Bengel). The second may illustrate the anxiety of getting; he alleges rather his plan and purpose (). The third was detained by pleasure; his marriage seemed a sufficient reason, and he simply said . Gerhard sums up the hindrances as dignitates, opes, voluptates, cf. Luk 8:14. His omnibus mederi poterat sanctum illud odium Luk 8:26 (Bengel).
Excuse is also used in Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 for (Joh 15:22), so Wyc. [Note: Wyclifs Bible (NT c. 1380, OT c. 1382, Purveys Revision c. 1388).] , Vulgate (excusatio); Authorized Version follows Tindale cloke. Cf. Psa 140:4 ; Vulgate ad excusandas excusationes in peccatis. The Jews had no longer anything to plead in their own defence, as was possible in times of ignorance.
Literature.Comm. of Meyer and Plummer, in loc.; works of Trench, Bruce, and Dods on Parables; Thomson, LB [Note: The Land and the Book.] p. 125.
W. H. Dundas.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Excuse
“a pretense, pretext” (from pro, “before,” and phemi, “to say”), is translated “excuse” in Joh 15:22, RV, for AV, “cloke;” “cloke in 1Th 2:5 AV and RV. See CLOKE, PRETENCE, SHOW (Noun).
“without excuse, inexcusable” (a negative, n, euphonic, and apologeomai, see C, No. 1, below), is used, Rom 1:20, “without excuse,” of those who reject the revelation of God in creation; Rom 2:1, RV, for AV, “inexcusable,” of the Jew who judges the Gentile.
lit., “to speak oneself off,” hence “to plead for oneself,” and so, in general, (a) “to defend,” as before a tribunal; in Rom 2:15, RV, “excusing them,” means one “excusing” others (not themselves); the preceding phrase “one with another” signifies one person with another, not one thought with another; it may be paraphrased, “their thoughts with one another, condemning or else excusing one another;” conscience provides a moral standard by which men judge one another; (b) “to excuse” oneself, 2Co 12:19; cp. B. See ANSWER.
is used in the sense of “begging off, asking to be excused or making an excuse,” in Luk 14:18 (twice), Luk 14:19. In the first part of Luk 14:18 the verb is used in the Middle Voice, “to make excuse” (acting in imagined self-interest); in the latter part and in Luk 14:19 it is in the Passive Voice, “have me excused.”