--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 314 of 769 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/314/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 314. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/314/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2. ## 314. Luke · 48 of 51 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/314/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/314/#p-N ### Verse 46 [¶1] Into thy hands I commend my spirit - Or, I will commit my spirit - I deposit my soul in thy hands. Another proof of the immateriality of the soul, and of its separate existence when the body is dead. ### Verse 48 [¶3] And all the people - All were deeply affected except the priests, and those whom they had employed to serve their base purposes. The darkness, earthquake, etc., had brought terror and consternation into every heart. How dreadful is the state of those who, in consequence of their long opposition to the grace and truth of God, are at last given up to a reprobate mind! ### Verse 50 [¶5] Joseph of Arimathea - See the notes on [Mat 27:57-60] (note), and those especially on [Mar 15:43] (note). ### Verse 54 [¶7] And the Sabbath drew on - Or, The Sabbath was lighting up, επεφωσκε, i.e. with the candles which the Jews light just before six in the evening, when the Sabbath commences. The same word is used for the dawning of the day, [Mat 28:1]. Wakefield. The Jews always lighted up candles on the Sabbath; and it was a solemn precept that, "if a man had not bread to eat, he must beg from door to door to get a little oil to set up his Sabbath light." The night of the Sabbath drew on, which the Jews were accustomed to call the light. See Lightfoot. ### Verse 55 [¶9] The women also, which came - These were Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, [Luk 24:10]. To these three, Mark, in [Mar 16:1], adds, Salome; but some think that this was only a surname of one of these Marys. ### Verse 56 [¶11] Prepared spices and ointments - This was in order to embalm him; which sufficiently proves that they had no hope of his resurrection the third day. [¶12] And rested the Sabbath day - For though the Jewish canons allowed all works, necessary for the dead, to be done, even on the Sabbath, such as washing and anointing, provided they moved not a limb of the dead person, yet, as the Jews had put Christ to death under the pretense of his being a malefactor, it would not have been either prudent or safe to appear too forward in the present business; and therefore they rested on the Sabbath. [¶13] Certain copies of the Itala have some remarkable additions in these concluding verses. The conclusion of the 48th verse, in one of them, is read thus: Beating their breasts and their foreheads, and saying, Wo to us because of what is done this day, on account of our sins; for the desolation of Jerusalem is at hand. To [Luk 23:52], another adds: And when Pilate heard that he was dead, he glorified God and gave the body to Joseph. On the circumstances of the crucifixion, see the observations at the end of Matthew 27 (note), and consider how heinous sin must be in the sight of God, when it required such a sacrifice! ### Introduction [¶15] The women coming early to the sepulchre on the first day of the week, bringing their spices, find the stone rolled away, and the tomb empty, [Luk 24:1-3]. They see a vision of angels, who announce Christ's resurrection, [Luk 24:4-8]. The women return and tell this to the eleven, [Luk 24:9], [Luk 24:10]. They believe not, but Peter goes and examines the tomb, [Luk 24:11], [Luk 24:12]. Christ, unknown, appears to two of the disciples who were going to Emmaus, and converses with them, vv. 13-29. While they are eating together, he makes himself known, and immediately disappears, [Luk 24:30], [Luk 24:31]. They return to Jerusalem, and announce his resurrection to the rest of the disciples, [Luk 24:32-35]. Jesus himself appears to them, and gives them the fullest proof of the reality of his resurrection, [Luk 24:36-43]. He preaches to them, and gives them the promise of the Holy Spirit, [Luk 24:44-49]. He takes them to Bethany, and ascends to heaven in their sight, [Luk 24:50], [Luk 24:51]. They worship him, and return to Jerusalem, [Luk 24:52], [Luk 24:53]. ### Verse 1 [¶17] Bringing the spices - To embalm the body of our Lord: but Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had done this before the body was laid in the tomb. See [Joh 19:39], [Joh 19:40]. But there was a second embalming found necessary: the first must have been hastily and imperfectly performed; the spices now brought by the women were intended to complete the preceding operation. [¶18] And certain others with them - This clause is wanting in BCL, two others; Coptic, Ethiopic, Vulgate, and in all the Itala except two. Dionysius Alexandrinus, and Eusebius also omit it. The omission is approved by Mill, Bengel, Wetstein, Griesbach, and others. Bishop Pearce thinks it should be left out for the following reasons: [¶19] 1. "They who came to the sepulchre, as is here said, being the same with those who, in [Luk 23:55], are called the women which came with him from Galilee, there was no room for Luke (I think) to add as here, and some others came with them; because the words in [Luk 23:55], to which these refer, include all that can be supposed to be designed by the words in question. [¶20] 2. Luke has named no particular woman here, and therefore he could not add and some others, etc., these words necessarily requiring that the names of the women should have preceded, as is the case in [Luk 24:10], where, when Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, and Joanna, had been named, it is very rightly added, and other women that were with them." ### Verse 2 [¶22] They found the stone rolled away - An angel from God had done this before they reached the tomb, [Mat 28:2] : On this case we cannot help remarking, that, when persons have strong confidence in God, obstacles do not hinder them from undertaking whatever they have reason to believe he requires; and the removal of them they leave to him: and what is the consequence? They go on their way comfortably, and all difficulties vanish before them. ### Verse 3 [¶24] And found not the body of the Lord - His holy soul was in Paradise, [Luk 23:43]; and the evangelist mentions the body particularly, to show that this only was subject to death. It is, I think, evident enough, from these and other words of Luke, that the doctrine of the materiality of the soul, made no part of his creed. ### Verse 5 [¶26] Why seek ye the living among the dead? - This was a common form of speech among the Jews, and seems to be applied to those who were foolishly, impertinently, or absurdly employed. As places of burial were unclean, it was not reasonable to suppose that the living should frequent them; or that if any was missing he was likely to be found in such places. ### Verse 7 [¶28] Sinful men - Or heathens, ανθρωπων ἁμαρτωλων, i.e. the Romans, by whom only he could be put to death; for the Jews themselves acknowledged that this power was now vested in the hands of the Roman governor alone. See [Joh 19:15]. ### Verse 8 [¶30] They remembered his words - Even the simple recollection of the words of Christ becomes often a source of comfort and support to those who are distressed or tempted: for his words are the words of eternal life. ### Verse 10 [¶32] And Joanna - She was the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward. See [Luk 8:3]. ### Verse 12 [¶34] Then arose Peter - John went with him, and got to the tomb before him. See [Joh 20:2], [Joh 20:3]. [¶35] The linen clothes laid by themselves - Or, The linen clothes only. This was the fine linen which Joseph of Arimathea bought, and wrapped the body in: [Mar 15:46]. Small as this circumstance may at first view appear, it is, nevertheless, no mean proof of the resurrection of our Lord. Had the body been stolen away, all that was wrapped about it would have been taken away with it; as the delay which must have been occasioned by stripping it might have led to the detection of the theft; nor would the disciples have run such a risk if they had stolen him, when stripping the body could have answered no end. This circumstance is related still more particularly by John, [Joh 20:5-7]. Peter seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head not lying with the linen clothes, but Wrapped together in a place by itself. All these circumstances prove that the thing was done leisurely; order and regularity being observed through the whole. Hurry and confusion necessarily mark every act of robbery. ### Verse 13 [¶37] Behold, two of them - This long and interesting account is not mentioned by Matthew nor John, and is only glanced at by Mark, [Mar 16:12], [Mar 16:13]. One of these disciples was Cleopas, [Luk 24:18], and the other is supposed by many learned men, both ancient and modern, to have been Luke himself. See the sketch of his life prefixed to these notes. Some of the ancient versions have called the other disciple Ammaus and Ammaon, reading the verse thus: Behold two of them, Ammaus and Cleopas, were going in that very day to a village about sixty furlongs distant from Jerusalem. But the Persian says positively that it was Luke who accompanied Cleopas. See the inscription to section 140 of this Gospel in the Polyglott. Dr. Lightfoot thinks it was Peter, and proves that Cleopas and Alpheus were one and the same person. [¶38] Threescore furlongs - Some MSS. say 160 furlongs, but this is a mistake; for Josephus assigns the same distance to this village from Jerusalem as the evangelist does. War, b. vii. c. 6. s. 6. Αμμαους απεχει των Ἱεροσολυμων σταδιους ἑξηκοντα, Ammaus is sixty stadia distant from Jerusalem, about seven English miles and three-quarters. A stadium was about 243 yards, according to Arbuthnot. ### Verse 15 [¶40] And reasoned - Συζητειν, concerning the probability or improbability of Christ being the Messiah, or of his resurrection from the dead. It was a laudable custom of the Jews, and very common also, to converse about the law in all their journeyings; and now they had especial reason to discourse together, both of the law and the prophets, from the transactions which had recently taken place. ### Verse 16 [¶42] Their eyes were holden - It does not appear that there was any thing supernatural here, for the reason why these persons (who were not apostles, see [Luk 24:33]) did not recollect our Lord is given by Mark, [Mar 16:12], who says that Christ appeared to them in another form. ### Verse 18 [¶44] Cleopas - The same as Alpheus, father of the Apostle James, [Mar 3:18], and husband of the sister of the virgin. [Joh 19:25].