Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 22:24

"And there arose also a contention among them, which of them was accounted to be greatest." — Luke 22:24 (ASV)

And there was also a strife among them.—The incident that follows is peculiar to Luke. The noun that he uses for “strife” does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament, but the corresponding adjective, “contentious,” appears in 1 Corinthians 11:16.

The dispute was apparently the continuation of many previous debates of the same kind, for example, in Luke 9:46, Matthew 18:1, Mark 9:34, and the prayer of the two sons of Zebedee (Matthew 20:23; Mark 10:37). What had just passed probably led to its revival.

Who was greatest? Was it Peter, to whom the keys of the kingdom had been promised; John, who reclined on the Master’s bosom; or Andrew, who had been first-called? Even the disciples who were in the second group of the Twelve might have cherished the hope that those who had been previously rebuked for their ambition or their lack of faith had left a place vacant to which they might now hopefully aspire.