Luke 7:29

Luke 7:29-35 . And all the people — That were present, and the publicans in particular, when they heard this discourse, having been formerly baptized with the baptism of John, justified God — Owned his wisdom and mercy, in having called them to repentance by John’s ministry, and prepared them for him that was to come. But the Pharisees and lawyers — The good, learned, honourable men; rejected the counsel of God against themselves — That is, to their own prejudice. They made void God’s gracious and merciful design, with regard to themselves; or disappointed all the methods of his love, and would receive no benefit from them. By calling the gospel the counsel of God, the grandest idea of it possible is given. It is nothing less than the result of the deep consideration and deliberation of God; for which reason the crime of men’s rejecting it is very atrocious. Now, to show these Pharisees and lawyers the perverseness of their disposition, in resisting the evidence of John’s mission, and the gracious design of God in calling them to repentance by his ministry, he told them they were like children at play, who never do what their companions desire them, but are so froward and perverse that no contrivance can be found to please them. It is plain, our Lord means that they were like the children complained of, not like those that made the complaint. Whereunto shall I liken, &c. — See this passage elucidated in the note on Matthew 11:16-19 .

We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced, &c. — The application of this proverb to the Pharisees our Lord justified by observing, that the Divine Wisdom had tried every method proper for converting them, but in vain. For, first of all, the Baptist was sent unto them in the stern dignity of their ancient prophets, so that it was natural to think they would have reverenced him; nevertheless, they rejected him altogether. John came neither eating bread, as others do, nor drinking wine — But living on locusts, and honey, and water, in the wilderness; and ye say, He hath a devil — He acts like a wild, distracted demoniac, whom an evil spirit drives from the society of men. Such, it seems, was the pride and malice of the Pharisees, that, when they found their own ostentatious and hypocritical mortifications utterly eclipsed by the real austerities of this holy man’s life, they impudently affirmed that his living in deserts, his shunning the company of men, the coarseness of his clothing, the abstemiousness of his diet, with other severities which he practised, were all the effects of madness, or religious melancholy. The Son of man came eating and drinking — The severity of John’s ministry proving unsuccessful, with respect to the conversion of the scribes and Pharisees, God sent his own Son to address and conduct himself toward them in a more free and familiar manner: but neither was this method successful in bringing them to repentance and newness of life.

Luke 7:29-30 are best taken as a historical reflection by the evangelist. Its prosaic character, as compared with what goes before and comes after, compels this conclusion, as even Hahn admits. Then its absence from Mt.’s account points in the same direction. It has for its aim to indicate to what extent the popular judgment had endorsed the estimate just offered by Jesus. The whole people, even the publicans, had, by submitting to be baptised by John, acknowledged his legitimacy and power as a prophet of God, and so “justified” ( ἐδικαίωσαν ) God in sending him as the herald of the coming Messianic Kingdom and King, i.e. , recognised him as the fit man for so high a vocation. To be strictly correct he is obliged, contrary to his wont, to refer to the Pharisees and lawyers as exceptions, describing them as making void, frustrating ( ἠθέτησαν , cf. Galatians 2:21 ) the counsel of God with reference to themselves. The two words ἐδικ . and ἠθέτ . are antithetic, and help to define each other. The latter meaning to treat with contempt and so set aside, the former must mean to approve God’s counsel or ordinance in the mission of the Baptist. Kypke renders: laudarunt Deum , citing numerous instances of this sense from the Psalt. Solom. — εἰς ἑαυτοὺς after ἠθέτησαν has been variously rendered = “against themselves” (A. V[76]) and = “for themselves,” i.e. , in so far as they were concerned (R. V[77]; “quantum ab eis pendebat,” Bornemann). But the latter would require τὸ εἰς ἑαυτούς

. The meaning is plain enough. God’s counsel very specially concerned the Pharisees and lawyers, for none in Israel more needed to repent than they. Therefore the phrase = they frustrated God’s counsel (in John’s mission), which was for (concerned) the whole Jewish people, and its religious leaders very particularly. [76] Authorised Version. [77] Revised Version.

Luke 7:29 . Καὶ πᾶς , and all ) Luke sets forth what the people did, and what on the other hand the Pharisees did, in order that he may show, why Jesus spake at the one time those things which are joined together by both verses.[73] A similar division of the sentence is to be seen, Matthew 9:6 .[74]— ἈΚΟΎΣΑς , having heard ) John.— καὶ ) and [that is] especially the publicans, whom others had most despaired of as irreclaimable.— ἐδικαίωσαν , justified ) They approved and submitted to the ordinance of God, the baptism of repentance, as being just . The same verb occurs presently, Luke 7:35 . [73] i.e. The things spoken Luke 7:24-28 , which refer to the multitude ( τοὺς ὄχλους ; in Luke 7:24 , answering to ὁ λαὸς , Luke 7:29 ), are joined with those spoken Luke 7:31-35 , in reference to the Pharisees and lawyers ( Luke 7:30 ), by the pair of verses, 29, 30, introduced parenthetically by way of explanation.—ED. and TRANSL. [74] Where similarly the writer introduces, parenthetically, a necessary remark of his own between the former and latter parts of Christ’s words.—ED. and TRANSL.

(29) And all the people that heard him . . . —Here the reports begin to vary, St. Luke omitting what we find in St. Matthew as to “the kingdom of heaven suffering violence;” and St. Luke interposing a statement, probably intended for his Gentile readers, as to the effect produced by the preaching of the Baptist on the two classes who stood at opposite extremes of the social and religious life of Judæa. Justified God.—Better, perhaps, acknowledged God as righteous. The word is commonly applied in this sense to man rather than to God; but it appears so used in the quotation in Romans 3:4 from the LXX. version of Psalm 51:4. Here it has a special significance in connection with the statement that follows in Luke 7:35, that “wisdom is justified of all her children.”

Verse 29. - And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God. This is not, as many expositors have assumed, a statement of St. Luke's own as to the effect of John's preaching on varied classes of his hearers, but the words are still the words of Jesus; it is a continuation of his eulogy of the Baptist. He says here that the people, "the folk," listened gladly to him; they were persuaded in great numbers of the necessity of a changed life, and were in consequence baptized by him. The meaning of the term, "justified God," is that these, the common folk, by their actions and ready acceptance of the great reformer-preacher, thus publicly declared that they acknowledged the wisdom and goodness of God in this his work through the Baptist; but , as is stated in the next verse - Luke 7:29

29 . justified God ] i.e. they bore witness that God was just; see Luke 7:35 , comp. Psalm 51:4 , “that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou art judged,” and Romans 3:26 . St Luke has already made prominent mention of the publicans at the baptism of John 3:12 .

29, 30. And all the people that heard—"on hearing (this)." These are the observations of the Evangelist, not of our Lord. and the publicans—a striking clause. justified God, being baptized, &c.—rather, "having been baptized." The meaning is, They acknowledged the divine wisdom of such a preparatory ministry as John's, in leading them to Him who now spake to them (see Lu 1:16, 17); whereas the Pharisees and lawyers, true to themselves in refusing the baptism of John, set at naught also the merciful design of God in the Saviour Himself, to their own destruction.