Luke 8

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 8:2-3

Christianity and woman. We have seen ( Luke 2:36-38 ) that woman, in the person of Anna, welcomed the infant Saviour to the world; it was most fitting that she should do so, for Christianity and womanhood have had a very 'close relationship, and undoubtedly will have even to the end. I. WHAT CHRISTIANITY OWES TO WOMAN . 1 . Its Divine Author and the Object of its worship was, "as concerning the flesh," born of a woman ( Galatians 4:4 ). The Son of God was, in a true... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 8:3

Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward . She must have been a person of wealth and high rank at the court of Herod Antipas. There were evidently not a few believers in that wicked and dissolute centre. Some years later we read of Manaen, the foster-brother of Herod, as a notable Christian ( Acts 13:1 ). Even Herod himself, we know, at first heard John the Baptist gladly. and, after the terrible judicial murder, we find that unhappy prince fancying that his victim had risen from the dead.... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 8:4

And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable . A great change, it is clear, took place in our Lord's way of working at this period. We have already (in the note on Luke 8:1 ) remarked that from henceforth he dwelt no longer in one centre, his own city Capernaum, but moved about from place to place. A new way of teaching was now adopted—that of the "parable." It was from this time onward that, when he taught, he seems generally... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 8:4-8

Failure and success in hearing. The produce of our spiritual fields does not always answer to our hopes or reward our labours; there is much sowing, but little reaping. How do we account for it? I. THE ACCOUNT OF THE FAILURE . 1 . Inattention on the part of the bearer. The truth is spoken faithfully, but so little heed is given to it that it is no sooner uttered and beard than it has disappeared from view. Sown on the hard wayside ( Luke 8:5 ), it does not enter into... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 8:4-15

The parable of the sower , and the Lord ' s interpretation of it. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 8:5

A sower went out to sow his seed. The Master's words, in after-days, must often have come home to the disciples. They would feel that in each of them, if they were faithful to their work, the "sower" of the parable was reproduced; they would remember what they had heard from his lips; how he had warned them of the reception which their words would surely meet with; how by far the greater proportion of the seed they would sow, would perish. But though the disciples and all true Christian... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 8:6

And some fell upon a rock . The picture here is not of a soil full of stones, but of a rocky portion of the corn-land where the rock is only covered with a thin layer of earth. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 8:7

And some fell among thorns. "Every one who has been in Palestine must have been struck with the number of thorny shrubs and plants that abound there. The traveller finds them in his path, go where he may. Many of them are small, but some grow as high as a man's head. The rabbinical writers say that there are no less than twenty-two words in the Hebrew Bible denoting thorny and prickly plants" (Professor Hacker). read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 8:8

And bare fruit an hundredfold . This is by no means an unheard-of increase even in the West, where vegetation is less luxuriant. Herodotus, quoted by Trench ('Parables'), mentions that two hundredfold was a common return in the Plain of Babylon, and sometimes three hundredfold; and Niebuhr mentions a species of maize that returns four hundredfold. On the marvellous fruit-bearing which would take place in the days of the Lord's future kingdom on earth, Irenaeus gives a quotation from Papias,... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 8:9

.— And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be! This is the only parable St. Luke gives as spoken by our Lord in this place. St. Matthew—who gives the additional detail that on account of the pressure of the crowd on the lake-shore it was spoken from a boat moored close to the bank—relates seven parables here in sequence. It is probable that the Master spoke some of these at least on this occasion, but St. Luke, possibly on account of its extreme solemnity, possibly... read more

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