Sent his servant. "If a sheikh, bey, or emeer invites, he always sends a servant to call you at the proper time. This servant often repeats the very formula mentioned in Luke xiv. 17: Come, for the supper is ready. The fact that this custom is confined to the wealthy and to the nobility is in strict agreement with the parable, where the man who made the supper is supposed to be of this class. It is true now, as then, that to refuse is a high insult to the maker of the feast (Thomson, "Land and Book"). Palgrave mentions a similar formula of invitation among the Bedouins of Arabia. "The chief, or some unbreeched youngster of his family, comes up to us with the customary tefaddaloo, or do us the favor" ("Central and Eastern Arabia "). 18. Make excuse (Tapaiтeîodai). Also rendered in New Testament refuse, Heb. xii. 19, 25, where both meanings occur. See also 2 Tim. ii. 23, Rev. Our phrase, beg off, expresses the idea here. I must needs (exw ȧváyênν). Lit., I have necessity: a strong expression. Go (eçendeîv). Go out (è§) from the city. 20. I cannot. A newly married man had special indulgence allowed him. See Deut. xxiv. 5. Herodotus relates how Croesus refused for his son an invitation to a hunt on this ground. "But Croesus answered, 'Say no more of my son going with you; that may not be in anywise. He is but just joined in wedlock, and is busy enough with that'" (i., 36). The man who had the most plausible excuse returned the surliest and most peremptory answer. Compare 1 Cor. vii. 33. 21. Streets (λaтeías)-lanes (púμas). The former word from λarús, broad; the broad streets contrasted with the narrow lanes. Wyc., great streets and small streets. 22. As thou hast commanded. Following the reading os, as. The best texts substitute ô, what. Render as Rev., "What thou didst command is done." 23. Hedges (payμovs). See on Matt. xxi. 33. It may mean either a hedge, or a place enclosed with a hedge. Here the hedges beside which vagrants rest. Compel. Compare constrained, Matt. xiv. 22; Acts xxvi. 11; Gal. vi. 12. Not to use force, but to constrain them against the reluctance which such poor creatures would feel at accepting the invitation of a great lord. May be filled (yeμiody). A very strong word; properly of loading a ship. "Nature and grace alike abhor a vacuum (Bengel). 27. His cross. More correctly, his own. An important charge. All must bear the cross, but not all the same cross: each one his own. 28. A tower. The subject of the parable is the life of Christian discipleship, which is figured by a tower, a lofty structure, as something distinguished from the world and attracting attention. Counteth (mpile). Only here and Apoc. xiii. 18. From pos, a pebble (see Apoc. ii. 17), used as a counter. Thus Herodotus says that the Egyptians, when they calculate (XoyiČovrai fýpois, reckon with pebbles), move their hand from right to left (ii., 36). So Aristophanes, "Reckon roughly, not with pebbles (pois), but on the hand" ("Wasps," 656). Similarly calculate, from Latin calculus, a pebble. Used also of voting. Thus Herodotus: "The Greeks met at the altar of Neptune, and took the ballots (Tàs výpovs) wherewith they were to give their votes." Plato: "And you, would you vote (av ĥpov Jeio, cast your pebble) with me or against me?" ("Protagoras," 330). See Acts xxvi. 10. Cost (τηv daπávnv). Allied to dáπтw, to devour. Hence expense, as something which eats up resources. The Sufficient (e's ȧñaρτioμóv). Lit., unto completion. kindred verb ȧmaρrio, not used in New Testament, means to make even or square, and hence to complete. 29. To finish (èkteλéσaı). Lit., "to finish out” (èx). Behold (JewρoûvTES). Attentively watching the progress of the building. See on ch. x. 18. Begin to mock. As his resources come to an end. 30. This man (ovтos ó ävIρwπos). With sarcastic emphasis. Was not able (οὐκ ἴσχυσεν). From ioxús, strength. See on power, 2 Pet. ii. 11. To be strong in body or in resources, and so to be worth, as Lat., valere. "This man was not worth enough, or was not good for the completion." In this latter sense, Matt. v. 13, "good for nothing." 31. To make war against another king (érép Baoiλei ovμßadeîv eis móλeμov). Lit., to come together with another king for war. So Rev., to encounter another king in war. "Out he flashed, And into such a song, such fire for fame, That when he stopped we longed to hurl together." TENNYSON, Idyls of the King. With ten thousand (èv déκa xixiáow). δέκα χιλιάσιν). sands: i.e., in the midst of; surrounded by. Lit., in ten thou- 32. Asketh (épwra). On a footing of equality: king treating with king. See on ch. xi. 9. Conditions of peace (τà πρòs cipývnv). Lit., things looking toward peace: preliminaries. Compare Rom. xiv. 19, things which make for peace (tà tŷs eipývns, the things of peace). 33. Forsaketh (άπотáσσeтαι). Bids good-by to. Rev., renounceth. See on ch. ix. 61. "In that forsaketh lies the key to the whole passage" (Trench). Christian discipleship is founded in self-renunciation. 34. Have lost its savor. See on Matt. v. 34. Shall it be seasoned. See on Mark ix. 50. CHAPTER XV. 4. In the wilderness. Not a desert place, but uncultivated plains; pasturage. Note that the sheep are being pastured in the wilderness. A traveller, cited anonymously by Trench, says: "There are, indeed, some accursed patches, where scores of miles lie before you like a tawny Atlantic, one yellow wave rising before another. But far from infrequently there are regions of wild fertility where the earth shoots forth a jungle of aromatic shrubs " (" Parables"). 5. When he hath found it. Matthew, If so be that he find it. On his shoulders. Lit., his own shoulders. "He might have employed a servant's aid, but love and joy make the labor sweet to himself" (Bengel). The "Good Shepherd" is a favorite subject in early Christian art. "We cannot go through any part of the catacombs, or turn over the pages of any collection of ancient Christian monuments, without coming across it again and again. We know from Tertullian that it was often designed upon chalices. We find it ourselves painted in fresco upon the roofs and walls of the sepulchral chambers; rudely scratched upon gravestones, or more carefully sculptured on sarcophagi; traced in gold upon glass, moulded on lamps, engraved on rings; and, in a word, represented on every species of Christian monument that has come down to us. It was selected because it expressed the whole sum and sub stance of the Christian dispensation. He is sometimes represented alone with his flock; at other times accompanied by his apostles, each attended by one or more sheep. Sometimes he stands amidst many sheep; sometimes he caresses one only; but most commonly-so commonly as almost to form a rule to which other scenes might be considered the exceptions -he bears a lost sheep, or even a goat, upon his shoulders" (Northcote and Brownlow, "Roma Sotteranea"). A beautiful specimen is found in the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, at Ravenna, erected about 450 a.d. It is a mosaic in green and gold. The figure is a beautiful one, youthful in face and form, as is usual in the early mosaics, and surrounded by his sheep. Facing this appears, over the altar, the form of Christ seated beside a kind of furnace, on the other side of which stands a little open bookcase. He is engaged in casting heretical books into the fire. Are they, indeed, the same-the Shepherd Christ of the Gospels, and the polemic Christ of the ecclesiastics? 6. With me. "Not with the sheep. Our life is his joy" (Gregory, cited by Trench). 7. Repenteth. See on Matt. iii. 2. 8-32. THE PARABLES OF THE LOST COIN AND OF THE PRODIGAL SON. Peculiar to Luke. 8. Pieces of silver (Spayuàs). Used by Luke only. A coin worth about eighteen cents, commonly with the image of an owl, a tortoise, or a head of Pallas. As a weight, 65.5 grains. A common weight in dispensing medicines and writing prescriptions. Wyc., transcribing the Greek word, dragmes. Tynd., grotes. 9. Her friends. Female friends, for the noun is used in the feminine form. I lost. Through her own carelessness. Of the sheep, Jesus says was lost." "A sheep strays of itself, but a piece of |