---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Luke 10"
description: "CHAPTER 10   :-. MISSION OF THE
SEVENTY DISCIPLES,
AND THEIR RETURN. As our Lord"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/luke/10"
---

CHAPTER 10

. MISSION OF THE
SEVENTY DISCIPLES,
AND THEIR RETURN.
As our Lord's end approaches, the
preparations for the establishment of the coming Kingdom are
quickened and extended.

**1. the Lord**—a becoming title
here, as this appointment was an act truly *lordly* [BENGEL].
**other seventy also**—rather,
"others (also in number), seventy"; probably with allusion
to the seventy elders of Israel on whom the Spirit descended in the
wilderness ([Numbers 11:24](../../../kjv/numbers/11/24); [Numbers 11:25](../../../kjv/numbers/11/25)).
The mission, unlike that of the Twelve, was evidently quite
*temporary.* All the instructions are in keeping with a brief
and hasty *pioneering* mission, intended to supply what of
general preparation for coming events the Lord's own visit afterwards
to the same "cities and places" ([Numbers 11:25](../../../kjv/numbers/11/25)) would not, from want of time, now suffice to accomplish;
whereas the instructions to the Twelve, besides embracing all those
to the Seventy, contemplate *world-wide* and *permanent*
effects. Accordingly, after their return from this single missionary
tour, we never again read of the Seventy.

**2. The harvest,** &c.—(See
on ).
**pray ye therefore the Lord of
the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest**—(See
on ).

**3-12.** (See on ).

**10. son of peace**—inwardly
prepared to embrace your message of peace. See note on "worthy,"
(see on ).

**3-12.** (See on ).

**12-15.** (See on ).
**for Sodom**—Tyre and
Sidon were ruined by commercial prosperity; Sodom sank through its
vile pollutions: but the doom of otherwise correct persons who,
amidst a blaze of light, reject the Saviour, shall be *less
endurable* than that of any of these.

**16. He that,** &c.—(See on
).

**17. returned**—evidently not
long away.
**Lord,** &c.—"Thou
hast exceeded Thy promise, for '*even the devils,*'" &c.
The possession of such power, not being expressly in their
commission, as in that to the Twelve (), filled them with more astonishment and joy than all else.
**through thy name**—taking
no credit to themselves, but feeling lifted into a region of
unimagined superiority to the powers of evil simply through their
connection with Christ.

**18. I beheld**—As much of the
force of this glorious statement depends on the nice shade of sense
indicated by the *imperfect tense* in the original, it should be
brought out in the translation: "I was beholding Satan as
lightning falling from heaven"; that is, "I followed you on
your mission, and watched its triumphs; while you were wondering at
the subjection to you of devils in My name, a grander spectacle *was
opening* to My view; sudden as the darting of lightning from
heaven to earth, lo! Satan was beheld falling from heaven!" How
remarkable is this, that by that law of association which connects a
part with the whole, those feeble triumphs of the Seventy seem to
have not only brought vividly before the Redeemer the whole ultimate
result of His mission, but compressed it into a moment and quickened
it into the rapidity of lightning! *Note.*—The word rendered
"*devils,*" is always used for those spiritual agents
employed in *demoniacal possessions*—never for the ordinary
agency of Satan in rational men. When therefore the Seventy say, "the
*devils* [demons] are subject to us," and Jesus replies,
"Mine eye was beholding *Satan falling,*" it is plain
that He meant to raise their minds not only from the *particular*
to the *general,* but from a very *temporary* form of
satanic operation to *the entire kingdom of evil.* (See ; and compare [Isaiah 14:12](../../../kjv/isaiah/14/12)).

**19. Behold, I give you,** c.—not
for any renewal of their mission, though probably many of them
afterwards became ministers of Christ but simply as disciples.
**serpents and scorpions**—the
latter more venomous than the former: literally, in the first
instance ([Mark 16:17](../../../kjv/mark/16/17); [Mark 16:18](../../../kjv/mark/16/18);
[Acts 28:5](../../../kjv/acts/28/5)); but the next words,
"*and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by
any means hurt you,*" show that the glorious power of faith
to "overcome the world" and "quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked one," by the communication and maintenance
of which to His people He makes them *innocuous,* is what is
meant ([1 John 5:4](../../../kjv/1-john/5/4); [Ephesians 6:16](../../../kjv/ephesians/6/16)).

**20. rejoice not,** &c.—that
is, not so much. So far from forbidding it, He takes occasion from it
to tell them what had been passing in His own mind. But as power over
demons was after all intoxicating, He gives them a higher joy to
*balance* it, the joy of having their names in Heaven's register
([Philippians 4:3](../../../kjv/philippians/4/3)).

**21, 22. Jesus . . . said,** c.—The
very same sublime words were uttered by our Lord on a former similar
occasion (see on ) but
(1) There we are merely told that He "answered and said"
thus; here, He "*rejoiced in spirit* and said," c. (2)
There it was merely "at that time" (or season) that He
spoke thus, meaning with a general reference to the rejection of His
gospel by the self-sufficient here, "*In that hour* Jesus
said," with express reference probably to the humble class from
which He had to draw the Seventy, and the similar class that had
chiefly welcomed their message. "Rejoice" is too weak a
word. It is "exulted in spirit"—evidently giving visible
expression to His unusual emotions; while, at the same time, the
words "in spirit" are meant to convey to the reader the
*depth* of them. This is one of those rare cases in which the
veil is lifted from off the Redeemer's inner man, that, angel-like,
we may "look into it" for a moment (). Let us gaze on it with reverential wonder, and as we
perceive what it was that produced that mysterious ecstasy, we shall
find rising in our hearts a still rapture—"Oh, the depths!"

**23, 24.** (See on ).
. QUESTION OF A
LAWYER AND PARABLE
OF THE GOOD
SAMARITAN.

**25. tempted him**—"tested
him"; in no hostile spirit, yet with no tender anxiety for light
on that question of questions, but just to see what insight this
great Galilean teacher had.

**26. What is written in the
law**—apposite question to a doctor of the *law,* and
putting him in turn to the test [BENGEL].

**27. Thou shalt,** &c.—the
answer Christ Himself gave to another lawyer. (See on ).

**28. he said,** c.—"Right
THIS do, and life is
thine"—laying such emphasis on "this" as to
indicate, without expressing it, *where the real difficulty to a
sinner lay,* and thus nonplussing the questioner himself.

**29. willing**—"wishing,"
to get himself out of the difficulty, by throwing on Jesus the
definition of "neighbor," which the Jews interpreted very
narrowly and technically, as excluding Samaritans and Gentiles
[ALFORD].

**30. A certain man**—a Jew.
**from Jerusalem to Jericho**—a
distance of nineteen miles northeast, a deep and very fertile
hollow—"the *Temple* of Judea" [TRENCH].
**thieves**—"robbers."
The road, being rocky and desolate, was a notorious haunt of robbers,
then and for ages after, and even to this day.

**31, 32. came down a . . . priest . .
. and a Levite**—Jericho, the second city of Judea, was a city of
the priests and Levites, and thousands of them lived there. The two
here mentioned are supposed, apparently, to be returning from *temple
duties,* but they had not learnt what that meaneth, 'I will have
mercy and not sacrifice' [TRENCH].
**saw him**—It was not
*inadvertently* that he acted.
**came and looked**—a
further aggravation.
**passed by**—although the
law expressly required the opposite treatment even of the *beast*
not only of their *brethren,* but of their *enemy* ([Deuteronomy 22:4](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/22/4);
[Exodus 23:4](../../../kjv/exodus/23/4); [Exodus 23:5](../../../kjv/exodus/23/5);
compare [Isaiah 58:7](../../../kjv/isaiah/58/7)).

**33. Samaritan**—one
excommunicated by the Jews, a byword among them, synonymous with
heretic and devil ([John 8:48](../../../kjv/john/8/48);
see on [Luke 10:1](../../../kjv/luke/10/1)).
**had compassion**—His best
is mentioned first; for "He who gives outward things gives
something *external to himself,* but he who imparts compassion
and tears gives him something *from his very self*"
[GREGORY THE
GREAT, in TRENCH].
No doubt the priest and Levite had their excuses—It is not safe to
be lingering here; besides, he's past recovery; and then, may not
suspicion rest upon ourselves? So might the Samaritan have reasoned,
*but did not* [TRENCH].
Nor did he say, He's a Jew, who would have had no dealings with me
([John 4:9](../../../kjv/john/4/9)), and why should I with
him?

**34. oil and wine**—the remedies
used in such cases all over the East (), and elsewhere; the *wine* to cleanse the wounds, the
*oil* to assuage their smartings.
**on his own beast**—himself
going on foot.

**35. two pence**—equal to two
day's wages of a laborer, and enough for several days' support.

**36. Which . . . was neighbour?**—a
most dexterous way of putting the question: (1) Turning the question
from, "Whom am I to love as my neighbour?" to "Who is
the man that shows that love?" (2) Compelling the lawyer to give
a reply very different from what he would like—not only condemning
his own nation, but those of them who should be the most exemplary.
(3) Making him commend one of a deeply hated race. And he does it,
but it is almost extorted. For he does not answer, "The
Samaritan"—that would have sounded heterodox, heretical—but
"He that showed mercy on him." It comes to the same thing,
no doubt, but the circumlocution is significant.

**37. Go,** c.—O exquisite,
matchless teaching! What new fountains of charity has not this opened
up in the human spirit—rivers in the wilderness, streams in the
desert! What noble Christian institutions have not such words
founded, all undreamed of till that wondrous One came to bless this
heartless world of ours with His incomparable love—first in words,
and then in deeds which have translated His words into flesh and
blood, and poured the life of them through that humanity which He
made His own! Was this parable, now, designed to magnify the law of
love, and to show who fulfils it and who not? And who did this as
never man did it, as our Brother Man, "our Neighbor?" The
priests and Levites had not strengthened the diseased, nor bound up
the broken ([Ezekiel 34:4](../../../kjv/ezekiel/34/4)), while He
bound up the brokenhearted ([Ezekiel 34:4](../../../kjv/ezekiel/34/4)), and poured into all wounded spirits the balm of sweetest
consolation. All the Fathers saw through the thin veil of this
noblest of stories, *the* Story of love, and never wearied of
tracing the analogy (though sometimes fancifully enough) [TRENCH].
Exclaims GREGORY NAZIANZEN
(in the fourth century), "He hungered, but He fed thousands He
was weary, but He is the Rest of the weary; He is saluted 'Samaritan'
and 'Demoniac,' but He *saves him that went down from Jerusalem and
fell among thieves,*" &c.
[Ezekiel 34:4](../../../kjv/ezekiel/34/4). MARTHA AND
MARY.

**38. certain village**—Bethany
([John 11:1](../../../kjv/john/11/1)), which Luke so
speaks of, having no farther occasion to notice it.
**received him . . . her
house**—The house belonged to her, and she appears throughout to
be the older sister.

**39. which also**—"who for
her part," in contrast with Martha.
**sat**—"seated
herself." From the custom of sitting *beneath* an
instructor, the phrase "sitting at one's feet" came to mean
being a disciple of any one ().
**heard**—rather, "kept
listening" to His word.

**40. cumbered**—"distracted."
**came to him**—"presented
herself before Him," as from another apartment, in which her
sister had "*left* her to serve (or make preparation)
*alone.*"
**carest thou not . . . my
sister,** c.—"Lord, here am I with everything to do, and
this sister of mine will not lay a hand to anything thus I miss
something from Thy lips, and Thou from our hands."
**bid her,** &c.—She
presumes not to stop Christ's teaching by calling her sister away,
and thus leaving Him without His one auditor, nor did she hope
perhaps to succeed if she had tried.

**41. Martha, Martha**—emphatically
redoubling upon the name.
**careful and cumbered**—the
one word expressing the inward *worrying anxiety* that her
preparations should be worthy of her Lord; the other, the outward
*bustle* of those preparations.
**many things**—"much
service" ([Luke 10:40](../../../kjv/luke/10/40)); too
elaborate preparation, which so engrossed her attention that she
missed her Lord's teaching.

**42. one thing,** c.—The idea of
"Short work and little of it suffices for Me" is not so
much the *lower sense* of these weighty words, as *supposed*
in them, as the basis of something far loftier than any precept on
economy. Underneath that idea is couched another, as to the
littleness both of elaborate preparation for the present life and *of
that life itself,* compared with another.
**chosen the good part**—not
in the general sense of Moses' choice (), and Joshua's (), and David's () that is, of good in opposition to *bad;* but, of two
good ways of serving and pleasing the Lord, choosing *the better.*
Wherein, then, was Mary's better than Martha's? Hear what follows.
**not be taken away**—Martha's
choice would be taken from her, for *her services would die with
her;* Mary's *never,* being spiritual and eternal. Both were
true-hearted disciples, but the one was absorbed in the higher, the
other in the lower of two ways of honoring their common Lord. Yet
neither despised, or would willingly neglect, the other's occupation.
The one represents the *contemplative,* the other the *active*
style of the Christian character. A Church full of Marys would
perhaps be as great an evil as a Church full of Marthas. Both are
needed, each to be the complement of the other.

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