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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Luke 4 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/luke/4.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; 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The words used by St. Luke describe the same fact as those used by St. Matthew and St. Mark, and agree with the Spirit given “not by measure” of <a href="/john/3-34.htm" title="For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God: for God gives not the Spirit by measure to him.">John 3:34</a><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-3.htm">Luke 4:3</a></div><div class="verse">And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Command this stone.</span>—The singular form is somewhat more vivid than the plural, “these stones,” in St. Matthew.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-5.htm">Luke 4:5</a></div><div class="verse">And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">The kingdoms of the world.</span>—St. Luke uses the word (literally, <span class= "ital">the inhabited world</span>) which was commonly used as co-extensive with the Roman empire. On the difference in the order of the temptations, see Note on <a href="/matthew/4-5.htm" title="Then the devil takes him up into the holy city, and sets him on a pinnacle of the temple,">Matthew 4:5</a>.<p><span class= "bld">In a moment of time.</span>—The concentration of what seems an almost endless succession of images into the consciousness of a moment is eminently characteristic of the activity of the human soul in the state of ecstasy or vision.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-6.htm">Luke 4:6</a></div><div class="verse">And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">For that is delivered unto me.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">hath been delivered unto me. </span>The specific assertion of the usurped dominion, though implied in St. Matthew, is in its form peculiar to St. Luke. (See Note on <a href="/matthew/4-9.htm" title="And said to him, All these things will I give you, if you will fall down and worship me.">Matthew 4:9</a>.) The notion that any such delegated sovereignty had been assigned to the Tempter, either before or after his fall from his first estate, has, it need hardly be said, no foundation in Scripture. It asserts that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof” (<a href="/psalms/24-1.htm" title="The earth is the LORD's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.">Psalm 24:1</a>); and the claim of the Tempter was a lying boast, resting only on the permitted activity and temporary predominance of evil in the actual course of the world’s history.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-13.htm">Luke 4:13</a></div><div class="verse">And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">When the devil had ended all the temptation.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">had completed every kind of temptation. </span>The three trials were each typical in character, and taken together they made up the cycle of those to which our Lord’s human nature was then open.<p><span class= "bld">For a season.</span>—<span class= "ital">Till a </span>[convenient] <span class= "ital">season</span>—i.e., till the close of the great work, the time of the power of darkness (<a href="/luke/22-53.htm" title="When I was daily with you in the temple, you stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.">Luke 22:53</a>), when the prince of this world again came (<a href="/john/14-30.htm" title="Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world comes, and has nothing in me.">John 14:30</a>), and, trying then the power of suffering, as he had before tried the allurement of the world, found that he was foiled in the latter temptation as he had been in the earlier.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-14.htm">Luke 4:14</a></div><div class="verse">And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">Returned in the power of the Spirit.</span>—The phrase, which meets us again in <a href="/romans/15-13.htm" title="Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.">Romans 15:13</a>, indicates a new phase of the life of the Son of Man, a change from its former tenor as striking as that which passed over the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, when new powers of thought and utterance were developed which had before been latent.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-15.htm">Luke 4:15</a></div><div class="verse">And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">Being glorified.</span>—The dawn of the day of work was bright. Wonder, admiration, glory, waited on the new Prophet. Soon, however, when His preaching involved a demand on men’s faith and obedience beyond what they had expected, it roused opposition, and the narrative that follows is the first stage of that antagonism.<p>Again, as in St. Matthew, the reader must be reminded that the narrative of John 2-5 comes in between the Temptation and the commencement of the Galilean ministry.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-16.htm">Luke 4:16</a></div><div class="verse">And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">And he came to Nazareth.</span>—The narrative that follows, signally interesting in itself, has also the special interest of being peculiar to St. Luke. We may naturally think of it as having come to him from the same group of informants as those from whom he derived his narrative of the Infancy. (See <span class= "ital">Introduction.</span>) He may have journeyed from Cæarea to Nazareth during St. Paul’s imprisonment in the former city, and obtained his information on the spot. It is clear that our Lord did not begin His ministry at Nazareth. He came there when His fame was, in some measure, at least, already established.<p><span class= "bld">As his custom was.</span>—This, then, had been His wont before He entered on His work. Children were admitted to the synagogue at the age of five. At thirteen attendance was obligatory. It was open to any man of reputed knowledge and piety, with the sanction of the ruler of the synagogue, to read the lessons (one from the Law and one from the Prophets), and our Lord’s previous life had doubtless gained the respect of that officer. Up to this time, it would seem, He had confined Himself to reading. Now He came to preach, after an absence possibly of some months, with the new power that had already made Him famous. The work of preaching also was open to any person of adequate culture, who had a “word of exhortation” to address to the worshippers. (Comp. <a href="/acts/13-15.htm" title="And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, You men and brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.">Acts 13:15</a>.) The constitution of the synagogue in thus admitting the teaching functions of qualified laymen, was distinctly opposed to the root-idea of sacerdotalism.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-17.htm">Luke 4:17</a></div><div class="verse">And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,</div>(17) <span class= "bld">The book of the prophet Esaias.</span>—The Law—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the Pentateuch—was commonly written on one long roll. The other books, in like manner—singly or combined, according to their length—were written on rolls of parchment, and were unrolled from the cylinder to which they were fastened. Here, it is clear, Isaiah formed a roll by itself. It is a natural inference from the fact that it was given to Him, that it contained the prophetic lesson for the day. In the calendar of modern Jews, the lessons from Isaiah run parallel with those from Deuteronomy. The chapter which He read stands as the second lesson for the day of Atonement. We cannot prove that the existing order obtained in the time of our Lord’s ministry, but everything in Judaism rests mainly on old traditions; and there is therefore nothing extravagant in the belief that it was on the day of Atonement that the great Atoner thus struck what was the key-note of His whole work.<p><span class= "bld">When he had opened the book.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">when He had unrolled.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-18.htm">Luke 4:18</a></div><div class="verse">The Spirit of the Lord <i>is</i> upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,</div>(18) <span class= "bld">The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.</span>—The passage that follows reproduces, with a few unimportant variations, the LXX. version of <a href="/context/isaiah/61-1.htm" title="The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;">Isaiah 61:1-2</a>. The words “to heal the broken-hearted” are not in the best MSS. “To set at liberty them that are bruised” is not found in the present text of Isaiah. It is a legitimate inference that the passage which Jesus thus read was one in which He wished men to see the leading idea of His ministry. Glad tidings for the poor, remission of sins, comfort for the mourners, these were what He proclaimed now. These were proclaimed again in the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. We cannot fail to connect the opening words with the descent of the Spirit at His baptism. That was the “unction from the Holy One” (<a href="/1_john/2-20.htm" title="But you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things.">1John 2:20</a>) which made Him the Christ, the true anointed of the Lord.<p><span class= "bld">Recovering of sight to the blind.</span>—The English version of Isaiah rightly follows the Hebrew in giving “the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” The blindness is that of those who have been imprisoned in the darkness.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-19.htm">Luke 4:19</a></div><div class="verse">To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">The acceptable year</span> <span class= "bld">of the Lord.</span>—The primary reference was to the year of Jubilee, when land that had been mortgaged returned to its owner, and debts were forgiven, and Israelite slaves released (<a href="/context/leviticus/25-9.htm" title="Then shall you cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.">Leviticus 25:9-10</a>). It was to our Lord, as it had been to Isaiah, the type of the “year” of the divine kingdom. A somewhat slavish literalism, which the study of St. John’s Gospel (Luke 2, 5, 6, 7, 12) would have dispelled in an hour, led some of the Fathers to infer from this that our Lord’s ministry lasted but for a single year.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-20.htm">Luke 4:20</a></div><div class="verse">And he closed the book, and he gave <i>it</i> again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">And he closed the book.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">rolled up, </span>as describing the actual manner of closing. The description is characteristic as indicating (1) that it probably came in the first instance from an eye-witness-and (2) the calmness and deliberation with which our Lord acted.<p><span class= "bld">And sat down.</span>—This conveys to us the idea of falling back to a place of comparative obscurity among the congregation. To the Jew it implied just the opposite. The chair near the place from which the lesson was read was the pulpit of the Rabbi, and to sit down in that chair (as in <a href="/matthew/5-1.htm" title="And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came to him:">Matthew 5:1</a>; <a href="/matthew/23-2.htm" title="Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:">Matthew 23:2</a>) was an assumption by our Lord, apparently for the first time in that synagogue, of the preacher’s function. This led to the eager, fixed gaze of wonder which the next clause speaks of.<p><span class= "bld">Fastened on him.</span>—The Greek word so rendered is noticeable as being used twelve times by St. Luke, (chiefly in the Acts), and twice by St. Paul (<a href="/2_corinthians/3-7.htm" title="But if the ministration of death, written and engraved in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:">2Corinthians 3:7</a>; <a href="/2_corinthians/3-13.htm" title="And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:">2Corinthians 3:13</a>), and by no other writer of the New Testament. It had been used by Aristotle in his scientific writings, and was probably a half-technical word which St. Luke’s studies as a physician had brought into his vocabulary, and which St. Paul learnt, as it were, from him.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-21.htm">Luke 4:21</a></div><div class="verse">And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">This day is this scripture fulfilled.</span>—It is obvious that we have here only the opening, words of the sermon preached on the text from Isaiah. There must have been more than this, remembered too vaguely for record, to explain the admiration of which the next clause speaks. But this was what startled them: He had left them as the son of the carpenter—mother, brethren, sisters were still among them—and now He came back claiming to be the Christ, and to make words that had seemed to speak of a far-off glorious dream, as a living and present reality.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-22.htm">Luke 4:22</a></div><div class="verse">And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?</div>(22) <span class= "bld">The gracious words.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">the words of grace. </span>It is noticeable that the latter noun does not occur at all in St. Matthew or St. Mark, becomes prominent in the Acts, and is afterwards the most characteristic word of the Epistles of St. Paul and St. Peter.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-23.htm">Luke 4:23</a></div><div class="verse">And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">Physician, heal thyself.</span>—There is something interesting in our finding this proverb in the Gospel of the beloved physician. May we think of him as hearing the proverb casually, tracking out its application, and so coming on this history? It was, probably, so far as is known, a common Jewish proverb; but there is no trace of it in Greek writers, and it was therefore likely to attract his notice.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-24.htm">Luke 4:24</a></div><div class="verse">And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">No prophet is accepted.</span>—The proverb is remarkable as having been quoted by our Lord certainly twice, possibly oftener: (1) on this His first visit after His baptism to Nazareth; (2) on His second visit (<a href="/matthew/13-57.htm" title="And they were offended in him. But Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house.">Matthew 13:57</a>; <a href="/mark/6-4.htm" title="But Jesus, said to them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.">Mark 6:4</a>). St. John’s reference to it (<a href="/john/4-44.htm" title="For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet has no honor in his own country.">John 4:44</a>) may have risen out of one or other of these two occasions, but it rather conveys the impression of the saying having been often on the lips of Jesus.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-26.htm">Luke 4:26</a></div><div class="verse">But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, <i>a city</i> of Sidon, unto a woman <i>that was</i> a widow.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">Save unto Sarepta.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">but unto Sarepta,</span> the Greek conjunction here marking a contrast rather than an exception. Sarepta, the Zarephath of <a href="/1_kings/17-9.htm" title="Arise, get you to Zarephath, which belongs to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain you.">1Kings 17:9</a>, was a Phoenician city lying between Tyre and Sidon. The reference to this incident at the commencement of our Lord’s ministry is a striking instance of His method of reading the underlying lessons of the narratives of the Old Testament, such as we see afterwards in His reference to David eating the shewbread. (See Notes on <a href="/context/matthew/12-3.htm" title="But he said to them, Have you not read what David did, when he was an hungered, and they that were with him;">Matthew 12:3-4</a>.) In what seemed a mere episode in the life of Elijah He finds a truth which implies the future calling of the Gentiles. When He complied with the prayer of the Syro-Phœnician woman, He was doing as Elijah had done.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-27.htm">Luke 4:27</a></div><div class="verse">And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.</div>(27) <span class= "bld">Eliseus the prophet.</span>—The original gives, as was natural, the Greek form of Elisha, as before of Elijah.<p><span class= "bld">Saving Naaman.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">but Naaman.</span> as before.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-28.htm">Luke 4:28</a></div><div class="verse">And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,</div>(28) <span class= "bld">Were filled with wrath.</span>—The admiration they had felt at first was soon turned into bitterness. They heard themselves spoken of as though there might be a faith in Zidon and in Syria which was not found in Israel, of which they themselves were altogether destitute.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-29.htm">Luke 4:29</a></div><div class="verse">And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.</div>(29) <span class= "bld">The brow of the hill.</span>—See Notes on <a href="/luke/1-26.htm" title="And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,">Luke 1:26</a>. The hill now shown as the Mount of Precipitation is about two miles from the city, and could hardly have been the place referred to. There is, however, a cliff about forty feet high close to the city.<p><span class= "bld">That they might cast him down headlong.</span>—The Greek word implies casting down from a cliff or precipice. It was not a recognised Jewish punishment, as flinging from the Tarpeian rock was at Rome; but we have an instance of it as an improvised method of execution in Amaziah’s treatment of the Edomite prisoners in <a href="/2_chronicles/25-12.htm" title="And other ten thousand left alive did the children of Judah carry away captive, and brought them to the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they all were broken in pieces.">2Chronicles 25:12</a>. A multitude under the influence of fanaticism or anger is always fertile in expedients of this nature.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-30.htm">Luke 4:30</a></div><div class="verse">But he passing through the midst of them went his way,</div>(30) <span class= "bld">He passing through the midst of them.</span>—The words do not necessarily involve a directly supernatural deliverance, as though the multitude had been smitten with blindness, or our Lord had become invisible. We have no right to insert miracles in the Gospel records. Calmness, silence, the moral power of self-possessed righteousness have in themselves a power, often proved, to baffle the fury of an angry mob.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-31.htm">Luke 4:31</a></div><div class="verse">And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.</div>(31) <span class= "bld">And came down to Capernaum.</span>—See Note on <a href="/matthew/4-13.htm" title="And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelled in Capernaum, which is on the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:">Matthew 4:13</a>. St. Luke, it will be noticed, gives, what St. Matthew does not give, the reason of the removal.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-32.htm">Luke 4:32</a></div><div class="verse">And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.</div>(32) <span class= "bld">At his doctrine.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">His teaching,</span> as elsewhere. The form and manner was what amazed men.<p><span class= "bld">His word was with power.</span>—The word used is the same as the “authority” of <a href="/matthew/7-29.htm" title="For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.">Matthew 7:29</a>. There was no timid references to the traditions of the elders or the <span class= "ital">dictum</span> of this or that scribe, such as they were familiar with in the sermons they commonly heard in their synagogues.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-33.htm">Luke 4:33</a></div><div class="verse">And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,</div>(33-37) <span class= "bld">And in the synagogue.</span>—See Notes on <a href="/context/mark/1-23.htm" title="And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,">Mark 1:23-27</a>. The narrative, as being common to these two Gospels, and not found in St. Matthew, may be looked on as having probably been communicated by one Evangelist to the other when they met at Rome (<a href="/colossians/4-10.htm" title=" Aristarchus my fellow prisoner salutes you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom you received commandments: if he come to you, receive him;)">Colossians 4:10</a>; <a href="/colossians/4-14.htm" title=" Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.">Colossians 4:14</a>). See <span class= "ital">Introduction</span> to St. Mark.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-38.htm">Luke 4:38</a></div><div class="verse">And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her.</div>(38, 39) <span class= "bld">And he arose out of the synagogue.</span>—. See Notes on <a href="/matthew/8-14.htm" title="And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever.">Matthew 8:14</a> Peculiar to St. Luke and indicating what we may venture to call accurate diagnosis, are the “great fever,” our Lord’s “rebuking” the fever, and the “immediate” rising to minister.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-40.htm">Luke 4:40</a></div><div class="verse">Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.</div>(40, 41) <span class= "bld">Now when the sun was setting.</span>—See Notes on <a href="/context/matthew/8-16.htm" title="When the even was come, they brought to him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:">Matthew 8:16-17</a>. Common to St. Luke and St. Mark are the “divers diseases,” and the silence imposed on the demoniacs. The words of the demoniacs, “Thou art the Son of God,” and “they knew that He was the Christ,” are peculiar to this Gospel.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-42.htm">Luke 4:42</a></div><div class="verse">And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them.</div>(42-44) <span class= "bld">And when it was . . .</span>—Again we have a narrative omitted by St. Matthew, but common to St. Luke and St. Mark. See Notes on <a href="/context/mark/1-35.htm" title="And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.">Mark 1:35-39</a>.<p><span class= "bld">The people sought him.</span>—The Greek tense implies continued seeking.<p><span class= "bld">And stayed him.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">tried to stay Him.</span> Their wish was that He should remain at Capernaum, heal their sick, teach them, and perhaps also that they and their fellow-townsmen might thus share in the fame of the new Prophet.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-43.htm">Luke 4:43</a></div><div class="verse">And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.</div>(43) <span class= "bld">I must preach.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">I must declare the glad tidings of the kingdom.</span> The Greek verb is literally “to evangelise,” and is quite distinct from that commonly translated “preach.”<p><span class= "bld">To other cities also.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">to the other cities,</span> with a special reference, probably, to those of Galilee.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/luke/4-44.htm">Luke 4:44</a></div><div class="verse">And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.</div>(44) <span class= "bld">He preached.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">was preaching.</span><p><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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