Luke 18:9

Luke 18:9-10 . And he spake this parable — Having in the preceding parable guarded his disciples against faintness and weariness in prayer, he here guards them against the contrary extreme of self-confidence: unto certain — For the conviction of certain persons in his train; who trusted in themselves that they were righteous — Who had a high opinion of their own piety, and on that account despised others as greatly inferior to them, both in holiness and in the favour of God. Observe, reader, these persons were, properly speaking, not hypocrites: the Pharisee here mentioned was evidently not a hypocrite, any more than he was an outward adulterer; but, mistaking his real state and character, he sincerely believed himself to be righteous, and accordingly told God so in the prayer which none but God heard. Two men went up into the temple to pray — It seems it was not the hour of public prayer, but they went thither to offer up their personal devotions, as was usual with pious people at that time, when the temple was not only the place, but the medium of worship; God having promised, in answer to Solomon’s request, that whatever prayer should be offered in a right manner in, or toward that house, it should, therefore, the rather be accepted. Christ is our temple, and to him we must have an eye in all our approaches to God.

Luke 18:9 . It is the more arbitrary to assume that the following doctrinal narrative was originally delivered in another connection (Paulus, Olshausen, de Wette; comp. Kuinoel), that it rather affords a confirmation of the probability (see on Luke 17:22 ) that the Pharisees, after our Lord’s rejoinder to them, Luke 17:20 f., were no longer present. The historical connection with what precedes is not more closely to be indicated than is pointed out by the characterization of the τινές as τοὺς πεποιθ . κ . τ . λ . These men, according to Luke 18:9 , must in some way or another have made manifest their disposition, and thereby have given occasion to Jesus to deliver the following discourse as far as Luke 18:14 . Who are the people? Assuredly not Pharisees , since it is actually a Pharisee that Jesus presents as a warning example. Possibly they were conceited followers of Jesus (Schleiermacher, de Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius), but more probably: Jews of a Pharisaic disposition , since Luke does not here, as at Luke 18:1 , designate the disciples expressly, and it was just for Jews of this kind that not only the example of the Pharisee, but also that of the publican , was the most humiliating. πρός ] He spoke to them.

To take it as at Luke 18:1 (Kuinoel, de Wette, and many others) is unsuitable, since there are persons in this place, and the context suggests no occasion for departing from the usual ad quosdam (Vulgate). τινας τοὺς πεποιθότας ] designates the persons in the abstract indefinitely, but in the quality in question specifically. See on Galatians 1:7 , and Bornemann, Schol . p. 113; Bernhardy, p. 318. ἐφʼ ἑαυτ .] they put on themselves the confidence that they were righteous. For others they did not entertain this confidence, but assumed the contrary and despised them.

Luke 18:9 . Καὶ πρός τινας , also to certain persons ) Previously He had spoken to the disciples, exhorting them to perseverance in prayer: now He deters certain persons from rashness and perverse self-confidence.— πεποιθότας ἐφʼ ἑαυτοῖς , who trusted in themselves ) in themselves, not in the grace of God, when praying; Luke 18:10 . The antithesis is πίστιν , faith , which has respect to God, Luke 18:8 . So πέποιθεν ἐπὶ τῇ δίκαιοσύνῃ αὐτοῦ , Ezekiel 33:13 , LXX.— ὅτι , that ) For the very question at issue turns upon that, who in prayer is to be counted righteous [the self-justiciary, or he who stands righteous by faith ].— δικαιοι ) righteous , needing no justification, Luke 18:14 . The antithesis is τῷ ἁμαρτωλῷ , “me, the sinner ,” Luke 18:13 .— ἐξουθενοῦντας , who made nothing of, despised ) accounting them unrighteous [as compared with themselves].— τοὺς λοιποὺς , the rest of men) all and each: Luke 18:11 .

(9) Unto certain which trusted in themselves . . . —Here, as above, the purpose of the parable is stated at the outset. It is, perhaps, open for us to think that isolated fragments of our Lord’s teaching, treasured up here and there in the memory of disciples, and written down in answer to St. Luke’s inquiries in the second stage of the growth of the Gospel records, would be likely to have such an introduction. The “certain which trusted” are not specified as being actually Pharisees, and included, we may believe, disciples in whom the Pharisee temper was gaining the mastery, and who needed to be taught as by a reductio ad absurdum, what it naturally led to. Despised others.—Literally, the rest—viz., all others. The word for “despise,” literally, count as nothing, is again one of those which St. Luke has, and the other Evangelists have not (that in Mark 9:12 differs in form), but which is frequent in the vocabulary of St. Paul (Romans 14:3; Romans 14:10; 1Corinthians 16:11, et al.). This universal depreciation of others would seem almost an exaggeration, if experience did not show—e.g., as in the history of Montanism and analogous forms of error—how easily men and women, religious societies and orders, drift into it, and how hard it is to set any limits to the monomania of egotism—above all, of religious egotism.

{2} And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: (2) Two things especially make our prayers void and of no effect: confidence of our own righteousness, and our contempt of others; but a humble heart is contrary to both of these.

Verse 9. - And he spake this parable . With this parable, "the Pharisee and the publican," St. Luke concludes his memories of the last journeyings toward Jerusalem. The incidents which directly follow took place close to Jerusalem; and here St. Luke's narrative rejoins that of SS. Matthew and Mark. No note of time or place assists us in defining exactly the period when the Master spoke this teaching; some time, however, in these last journeyings, that is, in the closing months of the public ministry, the parable in question was certainly spoken. Luke 18:9

Luke THREE KINDS OF PRAYINGLuke 18:1 - Luke 18:14 . The two parables in this passage are each prefaced by Luke’s explanation of their purpose. They are also connected by being both concerned with aspects of prayer. But the second was apparently not spoken at the same time as the first, but is put here by Luke as in an appropriate place. I. The wearisome widow and the unrighteous judge. The similarities and dissimilarities between this parable and that in Luke 11:5 - Luke 11:8 are equally instructive. Both take a very unlovely character as open to the influence of persistent entreaty; both strongly underscore the unworthiness and selfishness of the motive for yielding. Both expect the hearers to use common-sense enough to take the sleepy friend and the worried judge as contrasts to, not parables, of Him to whom Christians pray. But the judge is a much worse man than the owner of the loaves, and his denial of the justice which it was his office to dispense is a crime; the widow’s need is greater than the man’s, and the judge’s cynical soliloquy, in its unabashed avowal of caring for neither God nor man, and being guided only by regard to comfort, touches a deep depth of selfishness. The worse he was, the more emphatic is the exhortation to persistence. If the continual dropping of the widow’s plea could wear away such a stone as that, its like could wear away anything.