Luke 24

¹⁰ There is much historical evidence that Quirinius was governor of Syria at the time of Jesus’ birth also. Syria is northeast of Israel. In Jesus’ time, Judea (the southern province of Israel, whose capital is Jerusalem) was part of Syria.

¹¹ Jerusalem was the capital of Judea, the southern province of Israel. Jerusalem was the main city of the Jews. The Jewish temple was located there.

¹² Christ means “anointed one” in the Greek language. “Messiah” means the same thing in the Hebrew language.

¹³ Asher was one of the twelve sons of Jacob, the grandson of Abraham. The twelve tribes of Israel are descended from Jacob’s twelve sons.

¹⁴ The Roman emperor allowed local rulers like Herod and Philip to administer small sections of the Roman Empire.

¹⁵ The Jews atoned for sin by of fering sacrifices.

¹⁶ Tax collectors are discussed in Mark 2:14 and comment.

¹⁷ See comment on Mark 6:1 and footnote to comment.

¹⁸ In New Testament times, books were written on long strips of paper or parchment, which were rolled up into a scroll (see Hebrews 10:7).

¹⁹ Jesus added these words from Isaiah 58:6.

²⁰ Notice in this verse that Jesus is talking about all men speaking well of us. When that happens, we should worry! Men of the world with hardened hearts should not be speaking well of us; if they are, it can only mean that we have become too much like them.

There is another sense, however, in which ordinary non-believers should speak well of Christians. They should be able to see Christ in us. They should be drawn to Christ by our good behavior (see Acts 5:12-14; 1 Timothy 3:7).

²¹ Some ancient manuscripts say “seventy,” instead of seventy-two.

²² At certain times, according to God’s purposes, Christians are protected from physical harm also (see Acts 12:5-11; 28:3-6).

²³ Here the Law means the first five books of the Old Testament.

²⁴ Samaritans are mentioned in Luke 9:52 and comment.

²⁵ The Levites were descended from Levi, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. They had responsibility for the services of the Jewish temple. The priests, on the other hand, were descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses, a great grandson of Levi. Only those descended from Aaron could be priests.

²⁶ Jesus is not indifferent to the injustice and inequality found in this world. He will one day judge those who cheat their brother or exploit the poor. However, Jesus’ primary reason for coming to earth was not to redress grievances or right wrongs. His primary reason for coming was to show men the way to the kingdom of heaven.

²⁷ Even a person who has never heard of Christ will still be punished in the next life, because all men have sinned against God in some way. All men know to some extent what God’s will is. Therefore, all men are without excuse (see Romans 1:18-20; 3:10-12 and comments).

²⁸ It is also true that sometimes calamities come on people because they have sinned. But of ten, calamities are not caused by sin. Calamities fall on men for different reasons. For some examples of these reasons, see John 9:1-3; James 1:2-3; 1 Peter 1:6-7; 4:12-13 and comments. We cannot judge a man’s sins by the suffering that comes upon him.

²⁹ The fig tree was of ten used as a sign of the Jewish nation (Hosea 9:10; Joel 1:7; Mark 11:12-14,21).

³⁰ It can be said that all illness is caused by Satan. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, mankind has been under the curse of death and sickness. This is Satan’s work (Genesis 3:1₃6₁,17-19).

³¹ The Jews thought that all Jews would be saved, but Jesus taught that only those who believed in Him would be saved.

³² All the dead, whether righteous or unrighteous, will be resurrected at the end of the world and receive a new body (see John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15; Romans 8:23 and comments). The resurrection of the righteous will be in heaven. For further discussion, see Word List: Resurrection.

³³ The parables of Jesus can sometimes have more than one true meaning.

³⁴ In place of the word hell, some translations of the Bible say “Hades.” “Hades” is the place where the spirits of the unsaved dead go to await the final judgment.

³⁵  We must remember that this is a parable. Therefore, it does not give a complete teaching about life after death. For example, the spirits of the dead do not have bodies, fingers, and tongues. Only after the general resurrection of the dead at the end of the world will the dead receive new bodies. The rich man’s request that his tongue might be cooled is only meant to signif y the torment he was experiencing.

³⁶ Here the word Moses refers to the first five books of the Old Testament, which were written by Moses. Therefore, the expression, Moses and the Prophets, means the entire Old Testament. The Old Testament is also sometimes called the “Law and the Prophets” (verse 16).

³⁷ To do this, Jesus had to travel down the east side of the Jordan River, because Samaria lay on the direct route between Galilee and Jerusalem. At the city of Jericho, He crossed back to the west side of the Jordan River (Luke 19:1).

³⁸ Leprosy is a communicable disease. In Jesus’ day, there was no medicine for leprosy, as there is now.

³⁹ In the Greek language, which was the language Luke used, the word within in this verse can also mean “among.” Both meanings are true. The kingdom of God is “among” us, because Jesus through His Spirit is among us. The kingdom of God is also “within” us, because Jesus’s Spirit is within us.

Jesus didn’t mean that the kingdom of God was “within” the unbelieving Pharisees. He was saying in a general way that the kingdom of God is within anyone who believes. However, it was true that the kingdom of God was “among” the Pharisees, because Jesus was present among them at that time.

⁴⁰ Jesus usually referred to Himself as the Son of Man (see Mark 2:10 and comment).

⁴¹ Not all ancient manuscripts of Luke contain verse 36. The same verse is found in Matthew 24:40.

⁴² The chosen ones are those who are chosen by God, that is, believers in Christ.

⁴³ According to Jewish law, the person who takes someone else’s goods must pay back double the amount (Exodus 22:9).

⁴⁴ Those who welcomed Christ during His triumphal entry into Jerusalem were mostly His own followers (verse 37).

⁴⁵ The word Jerusalem means “city of peace.”

⁴⁶ The twelve tribes of Israel are descended from the twelve sons of Jacob, Abraham’s grandson. Therefore, the “twelve tribes of Israel” make up the entire nation of Israel.

⁴⁷ In the Greek text of this verse, the you is pleural.

⁴⁸ That is enough is a Jewish saying which means “the matter is finished.”

⁴⁹ This is the same Herod who had earlier put John the Baptist to death, and who afterwards began to think that Jesus was John the Baptist risen from the dead (see Mark 6:14-16).

⁵⁰ Judas Iscariot was no longer among the disciples, so they numbered eleven.

⁵¹ John had believed when he first saw the empty tomb (John 20:8).

⁵² The writers of the four Gospels each give part of the account of Jesus’ appearances after His resurrection. Imagine any four men who have witnessed some great event. They each will describe that event from their own viewpoint. One will mention one thing, another will mention another. When the four accounts are put together, one can then obtain a full description of that event. The four Gospels are like that. Everything that each Gospel writer has written is true, but each writer has not included every detail in his own Gospel. Therefore, in order to obtain a full description of Jesus’ life and, in particular, of the events following His resurrection, we must study the four Gospel accounts together.

Even when we do this, however, there will still be many details about Jesus’ life that we shall never know, because they have not been written (see John 21:25).

⁵³  Cleopas may be the same man as the Clopas mentioned in John 19:25, but with a slightly different spelling of his name.

⁵⁴  The Romans usually hung criminals on the cross by driving great nails through their hands and feet.

⁵⁵  Jesus gave this command to the disciples after they had returned to Jerusalem from Galilee.