Some thoughts from my devotions
Last night I forgot to bring my Nook to work, so when I went to take a break and read in Luke, I was hindered. Then I realized, “Well, you do bring a regular Bible with you. You can read that.” I need those kinds of reminders at times.
At any rate, I got my Bible out of my backpack and opened it up to Luke. I had read chapter 3 the previous night, so that meant chapter 4. But I noticed something right away, a difference between my Nook Bible and the printed one. Since chapter 3 comes before 4 I glanced at 3. I read:
23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli . . . 38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
I thought, something’s different from last night. I got home and looked at my Nook Bible and saw
23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli . . . 38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
Do you see it? My Nook Bible did not have any words in italics. You might say, What?? Yes. The King James translators had a policy, whenever they added a word that did not have an equivalent in the original language but that they thought helped to make better sense in English, they put that word in italics. An example is
Luke 5:17 And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.
Literally, this is, “and the power of the Lord was to heal them” So they added “present” to convey what they thought was the idea. I like this honesty.
Back to Luke 3. I noticed that “the son” did not occur after “the son of Joseph.” So we could read it like this
23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was of Heli . . . 38 Which was of Enos, which was of Seth, which was of Adam, which was of God.
It is not really significant until you get to Adam being “of God.” In all the other cases the idea is, Adam got together with Eve and they conceived a son, Seth. But that is NOT how it was with Adam. Adam was not conceived by God and born to him through some unnamed wife, but he was “of” him. That is, God created him. I just thought it was neat. A small distinction but an important one.
Luke 4:16-21
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Notice the Bible reading program in the synagogue – every Sabbath they read from the Law and the Prophets. They had a reading plan and they often asked visitors to read and then address the congregation.
He “stood up for the read” I don’t know if everyone else stood, but the reader did.
“he closed the book . . . and sat down” The custom among the Jews and early Christians was for the speaker/preacher to sit down to teach.
All that is technical stuff. The really cool part is, “And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Is this not an awesome word? “You have been waiting for the Anointed One to come and today I tell you, he is here.” And if that is not wonderful enough, just consider all that he came to do for us!
People often say that Jesus never came out and said he was the Messiah. Oh, yes he did. And here is one of those places. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” The Jews knew this referred to the Anointed One, the Messiah. And they were waiting for him to appear and for this prophecy to be fulfilled. Jesus read it and said, “Ahem, today this is fulfilled. This is me. I am He.”
Was nothing else good? Oh yeah, but I didn’t want to write a commentary on Luke 4!
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