Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 4:19

"To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." — Luke 4:19 (ASV)

The acceptable year of the Lord.—The primary reference was to the year of Jubilee, when land that had been mortgaged returned to its owner, and debts were forgiven, and Israelite slaves released (Leviticus 25:9–10). It was to our Lord, as it had been to Isaiah, the type of the year of the divine kingdom. A somewhat slavish literalism, which the study of St. John’s Gospel (Luke 2:5, 2:6, 2:7, 2:12) would have dispelled in an hour, led some of the Fathers to infer from this that our Lord’s ministry lasted but for a single year.