Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 21:34

"But take heed to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come on you suddenly as a snare:" — Luke 21:34 (ASV)

Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time . . .—We again encounter a section that has no parallel in the other accounts of the discourse, and it may therefore be assumed to be a paraphrase.

We note in this passage, accordingly, that within the New Testament, only St. Luke uses the words for overcharged and surfeiting (the latter term belonging, more or less, to medical vocabulary); St. Luke and St. Paul alone use the words for drunkenness (Romans 13:13; Galatians 5:21), and cares of this life (1 Corinthians 6:3–4), and unawares (1 Thessalonians 5:3). In the last reference (1 Thessalonians 5:3), we find what reads almost like a distinct echo of this verse. The whole passage, it may be noted, falls in with St. Luke’s characteristic tendency to record all portions of our Lord’s teaching that warned men against sensuality and worldliness.