EXPLANATORY NOTES FROM—

1. The Synoptic Gospels, by Bruce. The Expositor's Greek Testament

2. The Gospel according to St. Luke, by Plummer. The International Critical Commentary.

3. The Gospel of St. Luke, by Adeney. The Century Bible.

Vers, 11-32. "The Parable of the Prodigal Son. It completes the trilogy of these parables of grace, but we cannot be sure that it was uttered on the same occasion as the two other parables. The Evangelist separates it from them by making a fresh start: Εἰπεν δέ (comp. xxiv. 44). But this may mean no more than that Jesus, having justified Himself against the murmurings of the Pharisees, paused; and then began again with a parable which is a great deal more than a reply to objections. Even if it was delivered on some other occasion unknown to Luke, he could not have given it a more happy position than this. The first two parables give the Divine side of grace: the seeking love of God. The third gives the human side: the rise and growth of repentance in the heart of the sinner. It has been called Evangelium in Evangelio, because of the number of gracious truths it illustrates. It has two parts, both of which appear to have special reference to the circumstances in which Luke places the parable. The younger son, who was lost and is found (11-24), resembles the publicans and sinners; and the elder son, who murmurs at the welcome given to the lost (25-32), resembles the Pharisees. In the wider application of the parable the younger son may represent the Gentiles, and the elder the Jews. Like the Lost Coin, it is peculiar to Luke, who would take special delight in recording a discourse which teaches so plainly that God's all-embracing love is independent of privileges of birth and legal observances. Its literary beauty would be a further attraction to the Evangelist, who would appreciate the delicacy, picturesqueness, and truth of this description of human circumstances and emotions" (Plummer). "This most beautiful and precious of all the parables is only found in Luke. It enlarges on the lessons of the two previous parables, with the addition of many new features. Thus it is more like a complete allegory than any other of our Lord's parables. It is important not to lose sight of its main lesson — the joy of restoring the lost, as that lesson is paramount in all three parables. But other very important lessons are also evidently intended to be gathered from this richly significant story" (Adeney).

Ver. 12. "give me the portion of thy substance that falleth to me." — "According to the Jewish law this would be half what the eldest received, i.e. one-third (Deut. xxi. 17); but had he any claim to it in his father's lifetime? Very possibly he had. We have here perhaps a survival of that condition of society in which testaments 'took effect immediately on execution, were not secret, and were not revocable ' (Maine, Ancient Law, ch. vi. p. 174, ed. 1861), and in which it was customary for a father, when his powers were failing, to abdicate and to surrender his property to his sons. In such cases the sons were bound to give the father maintenance; but the act of resignation was otherwise complete and irrevocable. Both in Semitic and in Aryan society this seems to have been the primitive method of succession, and the Mosaic Law makes no provision for the privileges of testatorship (ibid., p. 197). The son of Sirach warns his readers against being in a hurry to abdicate (Ecclus. xxxiii. 19-23), but he seems to assume that it will be done before death. We may say, then, that the younger son was not making an unheard-of claim. His father would abdicate some day in any case; he asks him to abdicate now" (Plummer). "It is said that" in some provinces in India, as soon as the younger son reaches manhood, any of the sons can demand a division of the property' (A. Wright, St. Luke, p. 139)" (Adeney). "divided unto them." — "In justice to his elder son the father gives him his portion also, but living still at home he does not take it away. He and his father would now live as partners" (Adeney).

Ver. 14. "famine." — "Such correspondences between the physical and moral worlds do occur, and there is a Providence in them" (Bruce).

Ver. 15. "joined himself." — "The citizen of the far country did not want him, it is no time for employing superfluous hands, but he suffered the wretch to have his way in good-natured pity" (Bruce).

Ver. 16. "have filled his belly" A.V.; "have been filled" R.V. "There is no doubt that χορτασθῆναι (אBDLR) is not a euphemism for γεμίσαι τὴν κοιλίαν αὐτοῠ ( A P Q X ΓΔ), but the true reading: cupiebat saturari (d f) concupiscebat saturari (e); Syr — Sin. supports A" (Plummer). "no man gave unto him." — "No one was giving him: this his experience from day to day and week to week. Giving what? Not the pods, as many think — these he would take without leave — but anything better. His master gave him little — famine rations, and no other kind soul made up for the lack. Neither food nor love abounded in that country. So there was nothing for it but swine's food or semistarvation" (Bruce). "Even this miserable food, so that the quantity which he got was small" (Plummer).

Ver. 17. "he came to himself." — "This equals either, realising the situation; a coming to his true self, his sane mind. Perhaps both ideas are intended. He at last understood there was no hope for him there, and, reduced to despair, the human, the filial, the thought of home and father revived in the poor wretch" (Bruce). "hired servants." — "Casual labourers, inferior to the slaves, as tramps hired by a farmer for harvesting are reckoned inferior to the men on the farm engaged from year to year" (Adeney).

Ver. 18. "I will arise" — "A bright hope gives energy to the starving man; home! Said, done; but the motive is not high. It is simply the last resource of a desperate man. He will go home and confess his fault, and so, he hopes, get at least a hireling's fare. Well to be brought out of that land, under home influences, by any motive. It is in the right direction. Yet though bread is as yet the supreme consideration, foretokens of true ethical repentance appear in the premeditated speech" (Bruce). "against heaven" — "The word 'Heaven' was commonly used by the Jews for ‘ God.' The reality of the story is seen in keeping the idea of the father in human regions. Thus the penitent owns his sin against God first" (Adeney).

Ver. 20. "while he was yet afar off" etc. — "The idea is that his father was looking for him and able to recognise him at a distance, even in rags. It illustrates God's attitude as ‘ waiting to be gracious '" (Adeney).

Ver. 21. — "He makes his confession exactly as he had planned it; but it is doubtful whether he makes it a miliating request. The words ποίησόν με ᾡς, κ.τ.λ., are here attested' by א, B, D, U, X; but almost all other MSS. and most Versions omit them. They may be taken from Ver. 19, and internal evidence is against them. Augustine says: ‘ Non aditt quod in ilia meditatione dixerat, Fac me sicut unum de mercenariis tuis' (Quaest. Evang. ii. 33). He had not counted on his father's love and forgiveness when he decided to make this request; and now emotion prevents him from meeting his father's generosity with such a proposal" (Plummer). "The son repeats his premeditated speech, with or without the last clause; probably with it, as part of a well-conned lesson, repeated half mechanically, yet not insincerely — as if to say: I don't deserve this; I came at most expecting a hireling's treatment in food and otherwise; I should be ashamed to be anything higher" (Bruce).

Ver. 22. "the best robe" — "The word indicates a stately robe, such as was worn on ceremonial occasions." "a ring." — "Probably with a signet, giving some authority." "shoes" — "Sandals, not worn by slaves, therefore showing he was free" (Adeney). "Robe — ring — shoes; all symbols of filial state" (Bruce).

Ver. 23. "the fatted calf" — "Prepared for some approaching feast. Was this to be the older son's wedding?" (Adeney).

Ver. 24. "this my son." — "The father formally calls him his son, partly by way of recognition, and partly to introduce him to the attendants in case they might not know him" (Bruce). "dead" — Ethically? or as good as dead? the latter more probable in a speech to slaves" (Bruce). "lost." — "His whereabouts unknown; one reason among others why there was no search, as in the case of the sheep and the coin" (Bruce).

Ver. 26. "what these things might be" — "Not contemptuous, * What all this was about ' (Farrar, C. G. T.), but with the puzzled air of a man in the dark and surprised" (Bruce).

Ver. 28. "angry" — "He had been working, and was irritable, perhaps because tired. Moreover, he was taken by surprise, and he had not been consulted" (Adeney). "intreated him." — As "the unwillingness to go in was a state which continued, the father's entreaties continue also. He treats both sons with equal tenderness" (Plummer). "The father goes out and presses him to come in, very properly; but why not send for him at once that he might stop working on the farm and join in the feasting and dancing on that glad day? Did they all fear that he would spoil the sport and act accordingly? The elder son has got a chance to complain, and he makes the most of it in his bitter speech to his father" (Bruce).

Ver. 29. "serve" — "His view of his relation to his father is a servile one." "never transgressed." — "The blind self-complacency of the Pharisee, trusting in his scrupulous observance of the letter of the Law, is here clearly expressed. This sentence alone is strong evidence that the elder brother represents the Pharisee rather than the Jewish nation as a whole, which could hardly be supposed to make so demonstrably false a claim" (Plummer), "a kid" — "Of less value than the fatted calf." "with my friends." — "Not with his father. He has his own friends. Really, then, he too has drifted away from his father, though living in the home" (Adeney).

Ver. 30. "this thy son." — "Contemptuous." This precious son of yours.' He will not say, 'My brother '" (Plummer). "with harlots." — "Hard, merciless judgment; the worst said and in the coarsest way. How did he know? He did not know; had no information, jumped at conclusions. That the manner of his kind, who shirk work, and go away to enjoy themselves" (Bruce). "This is mere conjecture, thrown out partly in contrast to 'with my friends' (who of course would be respectable), partly to make the worst of his brother's conduct. That it shows how he would have found enjoyment, had he broken loose, is not so clear" (Plummer).

Ver. 31. "ever with me." — "‘What he is enjoying for this one day thou hast always been able to command.' But like the Pharisees, this elder son had not understood or appreciated his own privileges. Moreover, like the first labourers in the vineyard, he supposed that he was being wronged because others were treated with generosity" (Plummer). "All that is mine is thine." — "If he wanted entertainments he could always have them: the property had been apportioned (ver. 12). Thus the first reproach is gently rebutted. So far from the elder son's service never having met with recognition, the recognition has been constant; so constant that he had failed to take note of it. The father now passes to the second reproach — the unfair recompense given to the prodigal. It is not a question of recompense at all: it is a question of joy. Can a family do otherwise than rejoice, when a lost member is restored to it?" (Plummer).

Ver. 32. "meet." — "This joy is becoming. The music and dancing are not out of place. The penitent is not to be received with gloom, but with rejoicing" (Adeney). "this thy brother." — "The substitution of ὁ ἀδελφός σου for ὁ υἱός μου, and the repetition of οότος clearly involve a rebuke; 'this thy brother, of whom thou thinkest so severely. If I have gained a son, thou hast gained a brother '" (Plummer).

Vers. 31, 32. — "The father answers meekly, apologetically, as if conscious that the elder son had some right to complain, and content to justify himself for celebrating the younger son's return with a feast; not a word of retaliation. This is natural in the story, and it also fits well into the aim of the parable, which is to illustrate the joy of finding the lost. It would serve no purpose in that connection to disparage the object of the lesser joy. There is peculiar joy over one sinner repenting even though the ninety-nine be truly righteous, and over a prodigal returned even though the elder brother be a most exemplary, blameless, dutiful son" (Bruce). "Not the least skilful touch in this exquisite parable is that it ends here. We are not told whether the elder brother at last went in and rejoiced with the rest. And we are not told how the younger one behaved afterwards. Both those events were still in the future, and both agents were left free. One purpose of the parable was to induce the Pharisees to come in and claim their share of the Father's affection and of the heavenly joy. Another was to prove to the outcasts and sinners with what generous love they had been welcomed" (Plummer).

These brief extracts have been collected as a help to preachers desiring to preach upon this parable; and indicate how inexhaustibly suggestive it is to different minds. For this reason the writer has allowed others, rather than himself, to speak in these Explanatory Notes.

"Cor nostrum inquietum est, donee requieacat in te."

"Da quod jubea, et jubc quod via."

"Deo aerrire vera libertaa eat."