Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 10:42

"but one thing is needful: for Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." — Luke 10:42 (ASV)

But one thing is needed.—Some of the better manuscripts present a singular variant reading, There is need of few things, or of one only. It is obvious that this might be taken either literally or spiritually. They might mean:

1. that He who spoke, and the others who were coming, did not need the many things about which Martha was troubled, but only a few, or even just a single dish, to supply their needs; or
2. that the true life of people needed only a few things, such as faith, obedience, the fear of God, or even only one, the devout and intent love which Mary was then showing.

The latter interpretation is clearly most in harmony with our Lord’s usual teaching, though the former has something like a parallel in the teaching of Luke 10:7 in this very chapter. It is quite probable that our Lord intentionally used words that had an outer and an inner meaning, the latter intended chiefly for those who had ears to hear. There is a remarkable coincidence between the words spoken here to Martha and those addressed to the young ruler (one thing thou lackest), whom we have seen reason to identify with her brother. (See Note on Matthew 19:16.) The omission of “few things” in the received text may have originated from the desire to give exclusive prominence to the higher meaning.

Mary has chosen that good part.—The Greek noun is very nearly the same as that which the younger son, in Luke 15:12, uses for the portion of goods, the good part or portion here being nothing less than the eternal life which is the gift of God. Here too we may trace something approaching a half-playful mingling of the higher and lower meanings of the word that was used in the Greek version of the Old Testament both for Benjamin’s mess, that is, portion of food (Genesis 43:34), and for God as the portion of His people (Psalms 73:26). Even if we assume that our Lord spoke in Aramaic and not in Greek, a similar play on the word would have been equally possible.

The two sisters have come to be regarded as the representatives respectively of the active and the contemplative forms of the religious life, and there is, of course, a certain measure of truth in this view. On the other hand, however, it must be remembered that Martha’s activity, with its many distractions, was not Christian activity, and that Mary’s contemplation passed, when the time came for it, as in John 12:3, into full and intense activity. The contrast is rather that between singleness of heart and the character which St. James describes as double-minded (James 1:8), that is, divided in its affections.