Luke 1:78

Tender mercy (σπλάγχνα ἐλέους) Lit., bowels of mercy. See on 1 Peter 3:8; and James 5:11. Rev. gives heart of mercy in margin. Wyc., frightfully, entrails of mercy. The day-spring from on high (ἀνατολὴ ἐξ ὕψους) Lit., the rising. The word occurs in the Septuagint as a rendering of branch, as something rising or springing up, by which the Messiah is denoted (Jeremiah 23:5; Zechariah 6:12). Also of the rising of a heavenly body (Isaiah 60:19, Sept.). Compare the kindred verb arise (ἀνατέλλω) in Isaiah 60:1; Malachi 4:2. This latter is the sense here. See on Matthew 2:2. Wyc. has he springing up from on high. Hath visited (ἐπεσκέψατο) See on Matthew 25:36; and 1 Peter 2:12. Some, however, read ἐπισκέψεται, shall visit. So Rev.

Luke 1:78 f. Διὰ σπλάγχνα ἐλέους κ . τ . λ .] is not to be separated from what precedes by punctuation, but to be immediately connected with ἐν ἀφ . ἁμ . αὐτ .: ἐν ἀφέσει δὲ ἁμαρτιῶν … τῇ διδομένῃ διὰ τὴν συμπάθειαν τοῦ ἐλέους αὐτοῦ , Euthymius Zigabenus. Comp. Theophylact. The reference to all that is said from προπορεύσῃ onwards, Luke 1:76 (Grotius, Kuinoel, de Wette, and others), is the more arbitrary, in proportion to the natural and essential connection that subsists between the forgiveness of sins and God’s compassion. διά ] not through , but for the sake of , see on Luke 1:77 ; σπλάγχνα is not merely, according to the Hebrew רחמים (see Gesenius), but also in the Greek poetical language, the seat of the affections, as, for instance, of anger (Arist. Ran. 1004) and of sympathy (Aesch. Ch. 407). So here. Comp. Colossians 3:12 ; Php 2:1 . ἐλέους is genitivus qualitatis, and Θεοῦ ἡμῶν depends on σπλάγχνα ἐλέους : for the sake of the compassionate heart of our God. ἐν οἷς ] instrumental: by virtue, of which. ἐπεσκέψατο ἡμᾶς ἀνατολὴ ἐξ ὕψ .] to be taken together: has visited us, etc., has become present to ns with His saving help (comp. Xen. Cyr. v. 4. 10; Sir 46:14 ; Jdt 8:33 ; Luke 7:16 ), It is appropriate to ἀνατ . ἐξ ὕψ ., as the latter is personified. The figurative designation of the Messiah: Dayspring from on high, is borrowed from the rising of the sun ( Revelation 7:2 ; Matthew 5:45 ; Hom.

Od. xii. 4; Herod. iv. 8), or as is more in keeping with the ἐξ ὕψιστου , from the rising of a bright-beaming star of the night ( Numbers 24:17 ; Valck. ad Eur. Phoen. 506), not (in opposition to Beza, Scultetus, Lightfoot, Wetstein) from an ascending shoot ( צֶמַח , Isaiah 4:2 ; Jeremiah 23:5 ; Jeremiah 33:15 ; Zechariah 3:8 ; Zechariah 6:12 ), against which may be urged ἐξ ὕψ . and ἐπιφᾶναι .[34] Comp. Isaiah 9:2 . ἘΠΙΦᾶΝΑΙ ] Infinitive of the aim. On the form see Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 25 f. τοῖς ἐν σκότει κ . σκ . θαν . καθημ .] those who sit in darkness and (climactic) the shadow of death —a picturesque delineation of the people totally destitute of divine truth and the true ζωή ( ἡμῶν , Luke 1:79 ). The shadow of death ( צַלְמֶוֶת ) is such a shadow as surrounds death (personified), and they are sitting in this shadow, because death is ruling among them, namely, in the spiritual sense, the opposite of the true life whose sphere is the light of divine truth. Moreover, comp. Isaiah 9:2 , and on Matthew 4:16 ; on καθημ . also, Nägelsbach, Anm. z. Ilias, ed. 3, p. 65. τοῦ κατευθῦναι κ . τ . λ .] The aim of ἐπιφᾶναι κ . τ . λ ., and so the final aim of ἐπεσκέψατο κ . τ . λ . Comp. on τοῦ δοῦναι , Luke 1:77 . “Continuatur translatio, nam lux dirigit nos,” Grotius.

Luke 1:78 . διὰ σπλάγχνα , etc., on account of, etc., indicating the fountain-head of salvation—the mercy of God, described in Hebrew phrase as the bowels of mercy of our God .— ἐπισκέψεται : the future (aorist in T.R.), though in few MSS. ([15] [16] [17]), is doubtless the true reading. In the second great strophe the verbs are all future, and describe what is to be.— ἀνατολὴ : happily rendered “dayspring” in A. V[18] The reference is undoubtedly to a light, star, or sun, not to a branch from Jesse’s stem, as it might be so far as usage in Sept[19] is concerned ( vide Jeremiah 23:5 , Zechar. Luke 3:8 , Luke 6:12 ), for its function is ἐπιφᾶναι , to appear as a light to those in darkness ( σκότει ).— σκιᾷ θανάτου : vide on Matthew 4:16 . [15] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862. [16] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi. [17] Codex Regius--eighth century, represents an ancient text, and is often in agreement with א and B. [18] Authorised Version. [19] Septuagint. The Benedictus is steeped in O. T. language; “an anthology from Psalms and Prophets,” Holtz., H. C.

Luke 1:78 . Διὰ , through ) Construe with ἀφέσει , remission—through , etc.— ἐλέους , of mercy ) An allusion to the name John: [In Hebr. = the mercy or grace of the Lord .]—[ ἐπεσκέψατο ἡμᾶς , hath visited us ) He was the Saviour even before that He assumed human nature. For His incarnation was a visiting of us of His own free choice.—V. g.]— ἀνατολὴ ) So the LXX. render צמח , Zechariah 3:8 ; Zechariah 6:12 ; Jeremiah 23:5 : for צמח is also said of the dawn of daylight. See John Gregor. Observ. c. 18, Tom. vii. Crit. col. 585, where there is a copious and admirable dissertation. There is a Metonymy of the Abstract for the Concrete, Day-spring [day-rising], i.e. the Sun-rising. See following verse [“to give light,” etc., which applies to the sun itself, not to its rising]; Joshua 9:1 ; Revelation 22:16 .— ἐξ ὓψους , from on high) This is said concerning the Son of God in this passage, and concerning the Holy Ghost in ch. Luke 24:49 [Endued with power from on high]: comp. Galatians 4:4 ; Galatians 4:6 . So [The second man is the Lord] from heaven, 1 Corinthians 15:47 .

(78) Through the tender mercy. —Literally, on account of the bowels of mercy of our God. After this manner the Jews spoke of what we should call “ the heart” of God. The word was a favourite one with St. Paul, as in the Greek of 2Corinthians 7:15 ; Philippians 1:8, Php_2:1 ; Colossians 3:12 . The pity that moved the heart of God is thought of, not as the instrument through which, but that on account of which, the work of the Baptist was to be accomplished. The dayspring from on high.—The English word expresses the force of the Greek very beautifully. The dawn is seen in the East rising upward, breaking through the darkness. We must remember, however, that the word had acquired another specially Messianic association, through its use in the LXX. version as the equivalent for the “Branch,” “that which springs upward,” of Jeremiah 23:5; Zechariah 3:8. Here the thought of the sunrise is prominent, and it connects itself with such predictions as, “The glory of the Lord hath risen upon thee” (Isaiah 60:1), “The sun of righteousness shall rise” (Malachi 4:2). What had become a Messianic name is taken in its primary sense, and turned into a parable. Hath visited us.—Better, hath looked upon us.

Luke ZACHARIAS’S HYMN THE DAYSPRING FROM ON HIGHLuke 1:78 - Luke 1:79 . As the dawn is ushered in by the notes of birds, so the rising of the Sun of Righteousness was heralded by song, Mary and Zacharias brought their praises and welcome to the unborn Christ, the angels hovered with heavenly music over His cradle, and Simeon took the child in his arms and blessed it. The human members of this choir may be regarded as the last of the psalmists and prophets, and the first of Christian singers. The song of Zacharias, from which my text is taken, is steeped in Old Testament allusions, and redolent of the ancient spirit, but it transcends that. Its early part is purely national, and hails the coming of the Messiah chiefly as the deliverer of Israel from foreign oppressors, though even in it their deliverance is regarded mostly as the means to an end, and the end one very appropriate on the lips of a priestly prophet-viz. sacerdotal service by the whole nation ‘in holiness and righteousness all their days.’ But in this latter portion, which is separated from the former by the pathetic, incidental, and slight reference to the singer’s own child, the national limits are far surpassed.

The song soars above them, and pierces to the very heart and kernel of Christ’s work. ‘The dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’ Nothing deeper, nothing wider, nothing truer about the mission and issue of Christ’s coming could be spoken. And thus we have to look at the three things that lie in this text, as bearing upon our conceptions of Christ and His work-the darkness, the dawn, and the directing light. I. The darkness. Zacharias, as becomes the last of the prophets, and a man whose whole religious life was nourished upon the ancient Scriptures, speaks almost entirely in Old Testament phraseology in this song. And his description of ‘them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death’ is taken almost verbally from the great words from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, who speaks, in immediate connection with his prophecy of the coming of the Christ, of ‘the people that walk in darkness and them that dwell,’ or sit, ‘in the shadow of death, upon whom the light hath shined.’ The picture that rises before us is that of a group of travellers benighted, bewildered, huddled together in the dark, afraid to move for fear of pitfalls, precipices, wild beasts, and enemies; and so sighing for the day and compelled to be inactive till it comes.