CHAPTER XVII

1. Impossible (anendekton). Inadmissable. Only here in New Testament. See on it cannot be, ch. xiii. 33.

Offenses. See on offend, Matt. v. 29; and compare on Matt. xvi. 23.

2. It were better (lusitelei). Only here in New Testament. The verb means to pay what is due, and is equivalent to our phrase, it pays.

Millstone. Compare Matt. xviii. 6. The correct reading here is liqov mulikov, a millstone; not a great millstone as Matthew.

Thrown (erriptai). Hurled: with an underlying sense of violence, called out by so great an outrage.

3. Rebuke. See on straitly charged, ch. ix. 21.

6. Sycamine. Or mulberry. Luke distinguishes between this and sukomorea, the fig-mulberry (ch. xix. 4). The names were sometimes confused, but a physician would readily make the distinction, as both were used medicinally.

9. I trow not. Omitted by the best texts.

10. Unprofitable (acreioi). From creia, requirement; something which the master must pay. Not useless, but having rendered no service beyond what was due. "The profit does not begin until the servant goes beyond his obligation" (Meyer). "A servant owes all things" (Bengel).

11. Through the midst of. It may also mean between or on the borders of. The Am. Rev. insists on the latter.

12. Lepers. See on ch. v. 12.

20. With observation (meta parathrhsewv). Only here in New Testament. The progress of the kingdom cannot be defined by visible marks like that of an earthly kingdom. Its growth in the world is a process of pervasion, like the working of the leaven through the lump.

21. Within. Better, in the midst of. Meyer acutely remarks that "you refers to the Pharisees, in whose hearts nothing certainly found a place less than did the ethical kingdom of God." Moreover, Jesus is not speaking of the inwardness of the kingdom, but of its presence. "The whole language of the kingdom of heaven being within men, rather than men being within the kingdom, is modern" (Trench, after Meyer).

24. Lighteneth (astraptousa). Only here and ch. xxiv. 4.

25. Rejected. See on disallowed, 1 Pet. ii. 4; and tried, 1 Pet. i. 7.

31. Goods. See on Matt. xii. 29.

On the house-top. See on Matt. xxiv. 17.

33. Shall preserve (zwogonhsei). Only here and Acts vii. 19. Originally to engender; thence to produce alive or endue with life, and so to preserve alive. Wyc., shall quicken it.