Luke 15 · Adam Clarke
Introduction Publicans and sinners draw near to hear our Lord, at which the Pharisees are offended, Luk 15:1 , Luk 15:2 . Christ vindicates his conduct in receiving them by the parable of the lost sheep, Luk 15:3-7 . The parable of the lost piece of money, Luk 15:8-10 ; and the affecting parable of the prodigal son, vv. 11-32. Verse 1 Publicans and sinners - Τελωναι και ἁμαρτωλοι, tax-gatherers and heathens; persons who neither believed in Christ nor in Moses. See the note on Luk 7:36 . Concerning the tax-gatherers, see the note on Mat 5:46 .
Verse 2 Receiveth sinners - Προσδεχεται. He receives them cordially, affectionately - takes them to his bosom; for so the word implies. What mercy! Jesus receives sinners in the most loving, affectionate manner, and saves them unto eternal life! Reader, give glory to God for ever!
Verse 4 What man of you - Our Lord spoke this and the following parable to justify his conduct in receiving and conversing with sinners or heathens. A hundred sheep - Parables similar to this are frequent among the Jewish writers. The whole flock of mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, belongs unto this Divine Shepherd; and it is but reasonable to expect, that the gracious proprietor will look after those who have gone astray, and bring them back to the flock. The lost sheep is an emblem of a heedless, thoughtless sinner: one who follows the corrupt dictates of his own heart, without ever reflecting upon his conduct, or considering what will be the issue of his unholy course of life. No creature strays more easily than a sheep; none is more heedless; and none so incapable of finding its way back to the flock, when once gone astray: it will bleat for the flock, and still run on in an opposite direction to the place where the flock is: this I have often noticed. No creature is more defenceless than a sheep, and more exposed to be devoured by dogs and wild beasts. Even the fowls of the air seek their destruction. I have known ravens often attempt to destroy lambs by picking out their eyes, in which, when they have succeeded, as the creature does not see whither it is going, it soon falls an easy prey to its destroyer. Satan is ever going about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour; in order to succeed, he blinds the understanding of sinners, and then finds it an easy matter to tumble them into the pit of perdition. Who but a Pharisee or a devil would find fault with the shepherd who endeavors to rescue his sheep from so much danger and ruin!
Verse 7 Just persons, which need no repentance - Who do not require such a change of mind and purpose as these do - who are not so profligate, and cannot repent of sins they have never committed. Distinctions of this kind frequently occur in the Jewish writings. There are many persons who have been brought up in a sober and regular course of life, attending the ordinances of God, and being true and just in all their dealings; these most materially differ from the heathens mentioned, Luk 15:1 , because they believe in God, and attend the means of grace: they differ also essentially from the tax-gatherers mentioned in the same place, because they wrong no man, and are upright in their dealings. Therefore they cannot repent of the sins of a heathen, which they have not practised; nor of the rapine of a tax-gatherer, of which they have never been guilty. As, therefore, these just persons are put in opposition to the tax-gatherers and heathens, we may at once see the scope and design of our Lord's words: these needed no repentance in comparison of the others, as not being guilty of their crimes. And as these belonged, by outward profession at least, to the flock of God, and were sincere and upright according to their light, they are considered as being in no danger of being lost; and at they fear God, and work righteousness according to their light, he will take care to make those farther discoveries to them, of the purity of his nature, the holiness of his law, and the necessity of the atonement, which he sees to be necessary. See the case of Cornelius, Act 10:1 , etc. On this ground, the owner is represented as feeling more joy in consequence of finding one sheep that was lost, there having been almost no hope of its recovery, than he feels at seeing ninety and nine still safe under his care. "Men generally rejoice more over a small unexpected advantage, than over a much greater good to which they have been accustomed." There are some, and their opinion need not be hastily rejected, who imagine that by the ninety and nine just persons, our Lord means the angels - that they are in proportion to men, as ninety-nine are to one, and that the Lord takes more pleasure in the return and salvation of one sinner, than in the uninterrupted obedience of ninety-nine holy angels; and that it was through his superior love to fallen man that he took upon him his nature, and not the nature of angels. I have met with the following weak objection to this: viz. "The text says just persons; now, angels are not persons, therefore angels cannot be meant." This is extremely foolish; there may be the person of an angel, as well as of a man; we allow persons even in the Godhead; besides, the original word, δικαιοις, means simply just ones, and may be, with as much propriety, applied to angels as to men. After all, our Lord may refer to the Essenes, a sect among the Jews, in the time of our Lord, who were strictly and conscientiously moral; living at the utmost distance from both the hypocrisy and pollutions of their countrymen. These, when compared with the great mass of the Jews, needed no repentance. The reader may take his choice of these interpretations, or make a better for himself. I have seen other methods of explaining these words; but they have appeared to me either too absurd or too improbable to merit particular notice.
Verse 8 Ten pieces of silver - Δραχμας δεκα, ten drachmas. I think it always best to retain the names of these ancient coins, and to state their value in English money. Every reader will naturally wish to know by what names such and such coins were called in the countries in which they were current. The Grecian drachma was worth about sevenpence three farthings of our money; being about the same value as the Roman denarius. The drachma that was lost is also a very expressive emblem of a sinner who is estranged from God, and enslaved to habits of iniquity. The longer a piece of money is lost, the less probability is there of its being again found; as it may not only lose its color, and not be easily observed, but will continue to be more and more covered with dust and dirt: or its value may be vastly lessened by being so trampled on that a part of the substance, together with the image and superscription, may be worn off. So the sinner sinks deeper and deeper into the impurities of sin, loses even his character among men, and gets the image and superscription of his Maker defaced from his heart. He who wishes to find the image of God, which he has lost by sin, must attend to that word which will be a lantern to his steps, and receive that Spirit which is a light to the soul, to convince of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He must sweep the house - put away the evil of his doings; and seek diligently - use every means of grace, and cry incessantly to God, till he restore to him the light of his countenance. Though parables of this kind must not be obliged to go on all fours, as it is termed; yet they afford many useful hints to preachers of the Gospel, by which they may edify their hearers. Only let all such take care not to force meanings on the words of Christ which are contrary to their gravity and majesty.
Verse 12 Give me the portion of goods - It may seem strange that such a demand should be made, and that the parent should have acceded to it, when he knew that it was to minister to his debauches that his profligate son made the demand here specified. But the matter will appear plain, when it is considered, that it has been an immemorial custom in the east for sons to demand and receive their portion of the inheritance during their father's lifetime; and the parent, however aware of the dissipated inclinations of the child, could not legally refuse to comply with the application. It appears indeed that the spirit of this law was to provide for the child in case of ill treatment by the father: yet the demand must first be acceded to, before the matter could be legally inquired into; and then, "if it was found that the father was irreproachable in his character, and had given no just cause for the son to separate from him, in that case, the civil magistrate fined the son in two hundred puns of cowries." See Code of Gentoo laws, pr. disc. p. 56; see also do. chap. 2: sec. 9, p. 81, 82; xxi. sec. 10, p. 301.
Verse 13 Not many days after - He probably hastened his departure for fear of the fine which he must have paid, and the reproach to which he must have been subjected, had the matter come before the civil magistrate. See above. Riotous living - Ζων ασωτως, in a course of life that led him to spend all: from α not, and σωω I save. And this we are informed, Luk 15:30 , was among harlots; the readiest way in the world to exhaust the body, debase the mind, ruin the soul, and destroy the substance.
Verse 14 A mighty famine in that land - As he was of a profligate turn of mind himself, it is likely he sought out a place where riot and excess were the ruling characteristics of the inhabitants; and, as poverty is the sure consequence of prodigality, it is no wonder that famine preyed on the whole country.
Verse 15 To feed swine - The basest and vilest of all employments; and, to a Jew, peculiarly degrading. Shame, contempt, and distress are wedded to sin, and can never be divorced. No character could be meaner in the sight of a Jew than that of a swineherd: and Herodotus informs us, that in Egypt they were not permitted to mingle with civil society, nor to appear in the worship of the gods, nor would the very dregs of the people have any matrimonial connections with them. Herod. lib. ii. cap. 47.
Verse 16 With the husks - Κερατιων. Bochart, I think, has proved that κερατια does not mean husks: to signify which the Greek botanical writers use the word λοβοι; several examples of which he gives from Theophrastus. He shows, also, that the original word means the fruit of the ceratonia or charub tree, which grows plentifully in Syria. This kind of pulse, Columella observes, was made use of to feed swine. See Bochart, Hieroz. lib. ii. cap. lvi. col. 707-10.
Verse 17 When he came to himself - A state of sin is represented in the sacred writings as a course of folly and madness; and repentance is represented as a restoration to sound sense. See this fully explained on Mat 3:2 (note). I perish with hunger! - Or, I perish Here. Ὡδε, here, is added by BDL, Syriac, all the Arabic and Persic, Coptic, Ethiopic, Gothic, Saxon, Vulgate, all the Itala, and several of the fathers.
Verse 18 Against heaven - Εις τον ουρανον; that is, against God. The Jews often make use of this periphrasis in order to avoid mentioning the name of God, which they have ever treated with the utmost reverence. But some contend that it should be translated, even unto heaven; a Hebraism for, I have sinned exceedingly - beyond all description.
Verse 20 And kissed him - Or, kissed him again and again; the proper import of καταεφιλησεν αυτον. The father thus showed his great tenderness towards him, and his great affection for him.
Verse 21 Make me as one of thy hired servants, is added here by several MSS. and versions; but it is evident this has been added, merely to make his conduct agree with his resolution, Luk 15:19 . But by this a very great beauty is lost: for the design of the inspired penman is to show, not merely the depth of the profligate son's repentance, and the sincerity of his conversion, but to show the great affection of the father, and his readiness to forgive his disobedient son. His tenderness of heart cannot wait till the son has made his confession; his bowels yearn over him, and he cuts short his tale of contrition and self-reproach, by giving him the most plenary assurances of his pardoning love. Bring forth the best robe - Bring out that chief garment, την στολην την πρωτην, the garment which was laid by, to be used only on birth-days or festival times. Such as that which Rebecca had laid by for Esau, and which she put on Jacob when she made him personate his brother. See the notes on Gen 27:15 . Put a ring on his hand - Giving a ring was in ancient times a mark of honor and dignity. See Gen 41:42 ; 1Kgs 21:8 ; Est 8:2 ; Dan 6:17 ; Jam 2:2 . Shoes on his feet - Formerly those who were captivated had their shoes taken off, Isa 20:1 ; and when they were restored to liberty their shoes were restored. See 2Chr 28:15 . In Bengal, shoes of a superior quality make one of the distinguishing parts of a person's dress. Some of them cost as much as a hundred rupees a pair; 10 or 12. Reference is perhaps made here to some such costly shoes. It is the same among the Chinese: some very costly shoes and boots of that people are now before me.
Verse 23 The fatted calf, and kill it - Θυσατε, Sacrifice it. In ancient times the animals provided for public feasts were first sacrificed to God. The blood of the beast being poured out before God, by way of atonement for sin, the flesh was considered as consecrated, and the guests were considered as feeding on Divine food. This custom is observed among the Asiatics to this day.
Verse 24 Was dead - Lost to all good - given up to all evil. In this figurative sense the word is used by the best Greek writers. See many examples in Kypke.
Verse 25 His elder son - Meaning probably persons of a regular moral life, who needed no repentance in comparison of the prodigal already described. In the field - Attending the concerns of the farm. He heard music - Συμφωνιας, a number of sounds mingled together, as in a concert. Dancing - Χορων. But Le Clerc denies that the word means dancing at all, as it properly means a choir of singers. The symphony mentioned before may mean the musical instruments which accompanied the choirs of singers.
Verse 28 He was angry - This refers to the indignation of the scribes and Pharisees, mentioned Luk 15:1 , Luk 15:2 . In every point of view, the anger of the older son was improper and unreasonable. He had already received his part of the inheritance, see Luk 15:12 , and his profligate brother had received no more than what was his just dividend. Besides, what the father had acquired since that division he had a right to dispose of as he pleased, even to give it all to one son; nor did the ancient customs of the Asiatic countries permit the other children to claim any share in such property thus disposed of. The following is an institute of the Gentoo law on this subject: (Code, chap. ii. sect. 9, p. 79:) "If a father gives, by his own choice, land, houses, orchards, and the earning of his own industry, to one of his sons, the other sons shall not receive any share of it." Besides, whatever property the father had acquired after the above division, the son or sons, as the prodigal in the text, could have no claim at all on, according to another institute in the above Asiatic laws, see chap. ii. sect. ii. p. 85, but the father might divide it among those who remained with him: therefore is it said in the text, "Son, thou art Always with me, and All that I have is Thine," Luk 15:31 .
Verse 29 Never - a kid - It is evident from Luk 15:12 , that the father gave him his portion when his profligate brother claimed his; for he divided his whole substance between them. And though he had not claimed it, so as to separate from, and live independently of, his father, yet he might have done so whenever he chose; and therefore his complaining was both undutiful and unjust.
Verse 30 This thy son - This son of Thine - words expressive of supreme contempt: This son - he would not condescend to call him by his name, or to acknowledge him for his brother; and at the same time, bitterly reproaches his amiable father for his affectionate tenderness, and readiness to receive his once undutiful, but now penitent, child! For Him - I have marked those words in small capitals which should be strongly accented in the pronunciation: this last word shows how supremely he despised his poor unfortunate brother.
Verse 31 All that I have is thine - See on Luk 15:28 (note).