Luke 7 Footnotes

7:16 Jesus, like Elijah (1Kg 17:17-24) and Elisha (2Kg 4:18-37), raised the dead, leading the crowd to speculate that he was a prophet on par with those great prophets. Elisha’s raising of the Shunammite’s son took place close to NT Nain, the site of this miracle. It is difficult to tell whether Luke presented their speculation as referring to the prophet of Dt 18:15. Though the verbal parallelism between their remarks and that of Deuteronomy is strong, the absence of the article with “prophet” leaves it unclear (Mt 21:11; Jn 6:14; Ac 3:22).

7:18-23 Did John the Baptist change his mind about Jesus? Though John had earlier identified Jesus as the Messiah (Mt 3:14; Jn 1:32-34), he now expressed doubts. However, this is not surprising. John was languishing in prison for a cause that was centered on the justice-wielding messianic power of Jesus. But Jesus’s ministry was not turning out to be what John expected (Lk 3:16-17). He thus sent emissaries to find out whether he had made a mistake.