Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Luke 4:20
(20) And he closed the book.—Better, rolled up, as describing the actual manner of closing. The description is characteristic as indicating (1) that it probably came in the first instance from an eye-witness-and (2) the calmness and deliberation with which our Lord acted.And sat down.—This conveys to us the idea of falling back to a place of comparative obscurity among the congregation. To the Jew it implied just the opposite. The chair near the place from which the lesson was read was the... read more
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Luke 4:19
(19) The acceptable year of the Lord.—The primary reference was to the year of Jubilee, when land that had been mortgaged returned to its owner, and debts were forgiven, and Israelite slaves released (Leviticus 25:9-10). It was to our Lord, as it had been to Isaiah, the type of the “year” of the divine kingdom. A somewhat slavish literalism, which the study of St. John’s Gospel (Luke 2:5, Luke 2:6, Luke 2:7, Luke 2:12) would have dispelled in an hour, led some of the Fathers to infer from this... read more