Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew Mark and Luke John Calvin
Luke 13:10-17
Luke 13:10-17
Luke 13:10-17
10. And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11. And, lo, a woman who had a spirit of infirmity during eighteen years, and was bent down, and was altogether unable to lift up her head. 887 12. Whom when Jesus saw, he called her to him, and said to her, Woman, thou art delivered from thine infirmity. 13.
And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood upright, and glorified God.
14. And the ruler of the synagogue answering, being offended because Christ had performed a cure on the Sabbath, said to the multitude, There are six days on which we ought to work: on them therefore come, and you shall be cured, and not on the Sabbath-day. 15. And the Lord answering said to her, Doth not each of you, on the Sabbath, loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? 16.
And must not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath-day? 17. And while he was saying these things, all his adversaries were ashamed, and all the people rejoiced on account of all the glorious actions which were done by him.
I have resolved to place in immediate connection some events which are detailed by Luke alone, without a direct reference to dates; for on that point, as we have formerly mentioned, the Evangelists did not care much about exactness. We shall afterwards find a more suitable time for returning to the Harmony of the Three Evangelists.
11. And, lo, a woman Here is related a miracle performed on a woman who was cured, and the offense which the malignity of the Jews led them to take up, because our Lord had cured her on a Sabbath-day Luke says that the woman was held by a spirit of infirmity, so that her body was bent by the contraction of her nerves. As the nature of the disease is no farther described, it is probable that it was not one of an ordinary kind, or which was understood by physicians; and, therefore, he calls it a spirit of infirmity. We know that diseases of an unusual and extraordinary kind are, for the most part, inflicted on men through the agency of the devil; and this 887"Laquelle estoit courbe, et ne pouvoit aucunement se dresser;"— "who was bent down, and was quite unable to stand upright."