Luke · WEB-C
Luke
12
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Meanwhile, when a multitude of many thousands had gathered together, so much so that they trampled on each other, he began to tell his disciples first of all, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. See also: 1 Peter 2:11 Corinthians 5:7-8James 3:17But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. See also: Mark 4:22Luke 8:172 Corinthians 5:10Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light. What you have spoken in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops. See also: Matthew 10:27Ecclesiastes 10:20Matthew 12:36“I tell you, my friends, don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. See also: Matthew 10:28Jeremiah 1:8Revelation 2:10But I will warn you whom you should fear. Fear him who after he has killed, has power to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear him. See also: 2 Peter 2:4Matthew 10:28Revelation 14:7“Aren’t five sparrows sold for two assaria coins? Not one of them is forgotten by God. See also: Luke 12:24Psalms 147:9Psalms 145:15-16But the very hairs of your head are all counted. Therefore don’t be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows. See also: Matthew 10:30-31Matthew 6:26Isaiah 43:3-4“I tell you, everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man will also confess before the angels of God; See also: Matthew 10:32-331 John 2:23Romans 10:9-10but he who denies me in the presence of men will be denied in the presence of God’s angels. See also: 2 Timothy 2:12Mark 8:38Matthew 10:33Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. See also: Matthew 12:31-321 John 5:161 Timothy 1:13When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, don’t be anxious how or what you will answer or what you will say; See also: Matthew 10:17-20Acts 4:5-7Luke 12:22for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that same hour what you must say.” See also: Luke 21:15Matthew 10:20Acts 4:8One of the multitude said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” See also: 1 Timothy 6:5Luke 6:45Ezekiel 33:31But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” See also: Romans 2:3Romans 9:20John 6:15He said to them, “Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man’s life doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses.” See also: Hebrews 13:51 Timothy 6:6-10Psalms 119:36-37He spoke a parable to them, saying, “The ground of a certain rich man produced abundantly. See also: Genesis 26:12-14Hosea 2:8Genesis 41:47-49He reasoned within himself, saying, ‘What will I do, because I don’t have room to store my crops?’ See also: Matthew 5:42Isaiah 58:72 Corinthians 9:6-15He said, ‘This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. See also: James 3:15James 4:15Luke 12:21I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”’ See also: Proverbs 27:1James 4:13-15Matthew 6:19-21“But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’ See also: Job 27:8Jeremiah 17:111 Timothy 6:7So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” See also: Matthew 6:19-20Luke 12:33James 2:5He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life, what you will eat, nor yet for your body, what you will wear. See also: Matthew 6:25-34Philippians 4:6Hebrews 13:5Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. See also: Job 2:6Proverbs 13:8Job 2:4Consider the ravens: they don’t sow, they don’t reap, they have no warehouse or barn, and God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds! See also: Luke 12:7Matthew 10:31Psalms 147:9Which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his height? See also: Matthew 6:27Matthew 5:36If then you aren’t able to do even the least things, why are you anxious about the rest? See also: 1 Peter 5:7Psalms 39:6Ecclesiastes 7:13Consider the lilies, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. See also: Matthew 6:28-30Luke 12:241 Kings 10:1-13But if this is how God clothes the grass in the field, which today exists and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith? See also: Isaiah 40:6Matthew 14:311 Peter 1:24“Don’t seek what you will eat or what you will drink; neither be anxious. See also: Luke 12:22Luke 22:35Matthew 6:31For the nations of the world seek after all of these things, but your Father knows that you need these things. See also: Matthew 6:32Matthew 6:8Ephesians 4:17But seek God’s Kingdom, and all these things will be added to you. See also: Matthew 6:33Hebrews 13:5Psalms 34:9“Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. See also: Hebrews 12:281 Peter 1:3-5Revelation 1:6Sell what you have and give gifts to the needy. Make for yourselves purses which don’t grow old, a treasure in the heavens that doesn’t fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. See also: Matthew 19:21Acts 2:45Acts 4:34-35For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. See also: Matthew 6:21Colossians 3:1-3Philippians 3:20“Let your waist be dressed and your lamps burning. See also: 1 Peter 1:13Ephesians 6:14Matthew 25:4-10Be like men watching for their lord when he returns from the wedding feast, that when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him. See also: Jude 1:20-21James 5:7-8Lamentations 3:25-26Blessed are those servants whom the lord will find watching when he comes. Most certainly I tell you that he will dress himself, make them recline, and will come and serve them. See also: 2 Peter 3:14Matthew 24:42John 13:4-5They will be blessed if he comes in the second or third watch and finds them so. See also: 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5Matthew 25:6But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. See also: 2 Peter 3:10Revelation 3:3Revelation 16:15Therefore be ready also, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you don’t expect him.” See also: 1 Thessalonians 5:6Matthew 25:13Matthew 24:44Peter said to him, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everybody?” See also: Mark 13:371 Peter 4:7Mark 14:37The Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the right times? See also: Matthew 24:45-461 Peter 4:101 Peter 5:1-4Blessed is that servant whom his lord will find doing so when he comes. Truly I tell you that he will set him over all that he has. See also: Luke 22:29-30Luke 19:17-19Daniel 12:2-3But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My lord delays his coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and to be drunken, See also: Matthew 24:48-50Jeremiah 20:2Revelation 18:7-8then the lord of that servant will come in a day when he isn’t expecting him and in an hour that he doesn’t know, and will cut him in two, and place his portion with the unfaithful. See also: Revelation 16:15Luke 12:40Psalms 11:5That servant who knew his lord’s will, and didn’t prepare nor do what he wanted, will be beaten with many stripes, See also: James 4:17John 9:41John 12:48but he who didn’t know, and did things worthy of stripes, will be beaten with few stripes. To whomever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked. See also: James 3:1Leviticus 5:17Luke 16:10-12“I came to throw fire on the earth. I wish it were already kindled. See also: Malachi 4:1Matthew 3:10-12Malachi 3:2-3But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! See also: John 12:27-28John 19:30John 7:6-8Do you think that I have come to give peace on the earth? I tell you, no, but rather division. See also: Matthew 10:34-36Luke 12:49Matthew 24:7-10For from now on, there will be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. See also: Acts 14:1-4John 15:18-21Micah 7:5-6They will be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against her mother; mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” See also: Micah 7:6Matthew 10:21-22Matthew 24:10He said to the multitudes also, “When you see a cloud rising from the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it happens. See also: 1 Kings 18:44-45Matthew 16:2-4When a south wind blows, you say, ‘There will be a scorching heat,’ and it happens. See also: Matthew 20:12Job 37:17You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but how is it that you don’t interpret this time? See also: Matthew 16:3Matthew 24:32-33Matthew 11:25“Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? See also: John 7:24Deuteronomy 32:29Acts 2:40For when you are going with your adversary before the magistrate, try diligently on the way to be released from him, lest perhaps he drag you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. See also: Matthew 5:23-26Isaiah 55:6Luke 13:24-28I tell you, you will by no means get out of there until you have paid the very last penny.” See also: Mark 12:42Matthew 18:34Matthew 25:41
See also: Cross references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), derived in part from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
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Notes · Haydock (1859, public domain)17 notes
Notes in English 19th-century Catholic commentary by Fr. George Leo Haydock, shown as published.
These notes keep the polemics of their time: some speak harshly of the Jewish people or of other Christians. The Church teaches otherwise today. The Jewish people may not be blamed for the death of Christ (Nostra Aetate 4; Catechism 597–598), and Christians of other communities are our brothers and sisters in the Lord (Unitatis Redintegratio 3). Christian unity
Luke 12:1
Ver. 1. Beware ye of the leaven, &c. Christ calls the hypocrisy of the Pharisees heaven, which changes and corrupts the best intentions of men; for nothing is more destructive than hypocrisy to such as give way to it. Theophylact.
↑ 1Luke 12:3
Ver. 3. House-tops. Our divine Saviour speaks here according to the custom of his own nation, where it was not uncommon for men to preach from the house-top, when they wished to deliver any thing to the public; for their houses had flat roofs. Ven. Bede.
↑ 3Luke 12:8
Ver. 8. Whosoever shall confess me. By these words we are informed, that more than bare inward protestations of fidelity will be demanded of us; for he moreover requires an exterior confession of our faith. S. Ambrose.
↑ 8Luke 12:13
Ver. 13. The inheritance. This man might think, that Jesus being the Messias, would act like a king and a judge. Wi. — Speak to my brother, &c. See in this the spirit of this world, at the very time Jesus is teaching disinterestedness, and the contempt of riches, he is interrupted by a man, who begs him to interfere in a temporal concern: deaf to every thing else, this man can think of his temporal interest only. Calmet. — He begged half an inheritance on earth; the Lord offered him a whole one in heaven: he gave him more than he asked for. S. Aug..
↑ 13Luke 12:14
Ver. 14. Judge, &c. Our Saviour does not here mean to say that he or his Church had not authority to judge, as the Anabaptists foolishly pretend; for he was appointed by his Father, the King of kings, and the Lord and Judge of all.
He only wished to keep himself as much detached as possible from worldly concerns: 1. Not to favour the opinion of the carnal Jews, who expected a powerful king for the Messias. 2. To shew that the ecclesiastical ministry was entirely distinct from political government, and that he and his ministers were sent not to take care of earthly kingdoms, but to seek after and prepare men for a heavenly inheritance. S. Ambrose, Euthymius, Ven. Bede.
↑ 14Luke 12:19
Ver. 19. Much goods, &c. It is evident how far this poor man was mistaken, when he called these things goods, which with more reason ought to be esteemed evils. The only things that can rightly be called goods, are humility, modesty, and its other attendants. The opposite to these ought to be esteemed evils; and riches we ought to consider as indifferent. S. Chrys.
↑ 19Luke 12:22
Ver. 22. Therefore I say to you, &c. Our Lord proceeds step by step in his discourse, to inculcate more perfect virtue. He had before exhorted us to guard ourselves against the fatal rocks of avarice, and then subjoined the parable of the rich man; thereby insinuating what folly that man is guilty of, who applies all his thoughts solely to the amassing of riches. He next proceeds to inform us that we should not be solicitous even for the necessities of life: wishing by this discourse to eradicate our wicked propensity to avarice. Theophy.
↑ 22Luke 12:29
Ver. 29. And be not lifted up on high.[1] S. Aug. (l. ii. QQ. Evang. q. 29. t. 3, part 4, p. 257.) expounds it thus: do not value yourselves for the plenty and variety you have of things to eat. Others, by the Greek, look upon it as a metaphor, taken from meteors in the air, that appear high, and as it were in suspense whether to remain there or to fall down; so that they expound it: be not distracted and disturbed with various thoughts and cares how to live. Wi.
↑ 29Luke 12:32
Ver. 32. Christ styles the elect in this place, his little flock, on account of the greater number of the reprobate; or rather through his love of humility, because though the Church be most numerous, yet he wishes it to continue in humility to the end of the world, and by humility to arrive at the reward which he has promised to the humble. Therefore, in order to console us in our labours, he commands us to seek only the kingdom of heaven, and promises us that the Father will bestow it as a reward upon us. Ven. Bede.
↑ 32Luke 12:33
Ver. 33. Be not solicitous that whilst you are fighting for the kingdom of heaven, the necessities of this life will be wanting to you, on account of his command. Sell what you possess, that you may bestow charity; which those do, who having left all things, nevertheless labour with their hands for their livelihood, and to bestow the rest in charity. Ven. Bede.
↑ 33Luke 12:35
Ver. 35. Let your loins be girded; i.e. be prepared to walk in the way of virtue; a comparison taken from the custom of the eastern people, who girded up their long garments, when they went about any business. Wi. — After our divine Saviour had given his disciples such excellent instructions, he wishes to lead them still farther in the path of perfection, by telling them to keep their loins girt, and to be prepared to obey the orders of their divine Master. By lamps burning in their hands he wished to insinuate, that they were not to pass their lives in obscurity, but to let their lights shine before men. Theophy.
↑ 35Luke 12:38
Ver. 38. In the first watch is childhood, the beginning of our existence, and by the second is understood manhood, and by the third is meant old age. He, therefore, who does not comply with our divine Master's injunctions in the first or second watch, let him be careful not to lose his soul by neglecting to be converted to God in his old age. S. Greg. in S. Tho. Aquin.
↑ 38Luke 12:39
Ver. 39. Some have imagined that the devil, our implacable enemy, is designated by the thief, and our souls by the house, and man by the householder: yet this interpretation does not agree with what follows; for the coming of our Lord is compared to the thief, as if surprising us on a sudden.
This latter opinion, therefore, seems to be the more probable one.
Theophylactus.
↑ 39Luke 12:48
Ver. 48. Shall be beaten with few stripes. Ignorance, when it proceeds from a person's own fault, doth not excuse, but only diminisheth the fault. Wi.
↑ 48Luke 12:49
Ver. 49. I am come to send fire on the earth. By this fire, some understand the light of the gospel, and the fire of charity and divine love. Others, the fire of trials and persecutions. Wi. — What is the fire, which Christ comes to send upon the earth? Some understand it of the Holy Ghost, of the doctrine of the gospel, and the preaching of the apostles, which has filled the world with fervour and light, and which was signified by the flames of fire which appeared at the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles. My words, says the Lord, in Jeremias, (C. xxiii. 29.) are as a fire, and as a hammer, that breaketh the rock in pieces. Others understand it of the fire of charity, which Christ came to enkindle upon the earth, and which the apostles carried throughout the whole world. But the most simple and literal opinion seems to be, the fire of persecution and war. Fire is often used in Scripture for war: and our Saviour declares in S. Matt. that he is come to bring the sword, and not peace; that is, the doctrine of the gospel shall cause divisions, and bring persecutions, and almost an infinity of other evils, upon those who shall embrace and maintain it.
But it is by these means that heaven must be acquired, it is thus that Jesus Christ destroys the reign of Satan, and overturns idolatry, superstition, and error, in the world. So great a change could not be made without noise, tumult, fire, and war. Calmet.
↑ 49Luke 12:50
Ver. 50. I am to be baptized, with troubles and sufferings. — And how am I straitened? &c. not with fear, but with an earnest desire of suffering. Wi.
↑ 50Luke 12:54
Ver. 54. In these words he reproaches them, that they knew well enough how to judge of the weather by the appearance of the heavens; but were ignorant how to distinguish the times: i.e. could not discern that the time marked by the prophets, for the coming of the Messias, was accomplished. In Palestine, the Mediterranean Sea, which was to the west, was accustomed to send clouds and rain; and the south winds, which came from Arabia and Egypt, very warm countries, caused dryness and heat. Calmet.
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[1] V. 29. Nolite in sublime tolli, me meteorizesthe; See S. Augustine, incipit superbire de talibus. l. v. QQ. Evang. Q. 29.
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↑ 54License: Notes by Fr. George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), from the Douay-Rheims Bible with Haydock's commentary (first ed. Thomas Haydock, Manchester/Dublin, 1811–1814; New York: Edward Dunigan & Brother, 1859); New Testament notes compiled with Fr. Benedict Rayment. Public domain. Digital text: "The Haydock Bible", Internet Archive (archive.org/details/TheHaydockBible), uploaded 2011 under the Public Domain Mark. · Credits and licenses