Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Luke 8:1-56
Luke 8:2-3 This passage, one of Luke's special contributions to the gospel narrative, describes the double circle of Christ's followers. (a) And with Him, the twelve, i.e. those specially called to high enterprise and service. This represents the circle of people in the Church who are conscious of a definite vocation and moved by the Spirit of Christ to serve the Church with consecrated lives. (b) But alongside of these are certain women which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities,... read more
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Luke 8:14
(14) Cares and riches and pleasures of this life.—Better, simply, of life, St. Luke’s word (bios) being different from that in the other two Gospels (œon, a time, or period—and so used for “the world”). The insertion of “pleasures” is peculiar to St. Luke, as is also the specific “bring no fruit to perfection “instead of “becometh unfruitful.” The one Greek word which St. Luke uses, and for which the English version substitutes five, occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, and belonging, as... read more