Luke 8:3

3. Joanna The feminine of John, (see note on Luke 1:13,) and the same as Jane.

Chuza… Herod’s steward The manager of his property concerns and his household affairs. The royal residence of Herod Antipas, Sepphoris, which was the Roman capital of Galilee, stood near the centre of that province, on an elevated table-land but a small distance from Capernaum. From the mountain which separated it from the broad plain Nazareth was plainly visible. Hence Herod, the actual sovereign, and Jesus, the rightful sovereign by birth, were in close proximity. And hence the wife of Herod’s steward might easily hear of such miracles as the healing the centurion’s servant and the raising of the widow’s son at Nain. There were saints, perhaps, in Herod’s house, as there afterwards were in Caesar’s.

See note on Matthew 14:2.

Of their substance These seem to be mentioned by Luke, including Mary Magdalene, as women of rank, wealth, and character. In a very incidental way he gives us to understand how the Son of man was as a man supported. He did not live by miracle. He commanded no stones to be made bread. The kingdom of God is to be built up, society is to be improved and renovated, not by miracle, but by the natural process of human agency.