Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 8

And it came to pass afterward.—The last word is the same as that translated “in order,” in Luke 1:3, and is interesting as showing the continuance of St. Luke’s purpose to narrate events, so far as he could, in their exact sequence. He is the only writer in the New Testament who uses it. The verse sums up an undefined and otherwise unrecorded range of work.

And certain women.—These words present us with a feature in this period of our Lord’s ministry not recorded elsewhere, though implied in Luke 23:49. At this period, the Master and the disciples formed one traveling company. When they arrived at a town or village, they held what we, in the current church language of our time, would call a Mission; the Twelve heralded His approach and invited people to listen to Him as He taught in the synagogue, the marketplace, or the open plain.

Another company, consisting of devout women, mostly from the wealthier class, traveled separately, probably journeying in advance to arrange for the reception and food of the Prophet and His followers. In the history of Elisha (2 Kings 4:10), we find something analogous to this way of helping the preachers of repentance. It is said to have been a fairly common practice in Judea in our Lord’s time for women of independent means to support a Rabbi in his work as a teacher.

Mary called Magdalene.—Regarding the legends and conjectures connected with her name, see Notes on Luke 7:37 and Matthew 27:56. Here it is enough to note the following:

1. Being from Magdala, a town near Tiberias (see Note on Matthew 15:39), she had probably heard our Lord during one of His early mission journeys.
2. The “seven devils” or “demons” (as mentioned in the parable of Matthew 12:45) point to a particularly severe form of possession, with paroxysms of delirious frenzy similar to those of the Gadarene demoniac.
3. Her presence with the mother of our Lord and Saint John at the Crucifixion (John 19:25) seems to imply a special bond of either sympathy or earlier connection with them.
4. She appears, from the names with which she is associated and from the fact that she too ministered of her substance, to have belonged to the wealthier segment of Galilean society.

Later Western legends tell of her coming with Lazarus and Martha to Marseilles and living for thirty years a life of penitence in a cave near Arles. The Eastern form of the legend, however, has her coming to Ephesus with the Virgin and Saint John, and dying there.

Joanna, the wife of Chuza.—Here again we have a convert of the upper class. The name was the feminine form of Joannes, and appears in modern languages abbreviated into Joanne, Joan, or Jane. Nothing further is known of Chuza—but the “steward” (the same word as in Matthew 20:8, and the “tutor” or “guardian” of Galatians 4:2) of the Tetrarch, the manager of his income and expenditure, must have been a man of some importance.

We may think of him and his wife as having probably come under the influence of the Baptist or of Manaen, the foster-brother of the Tetrarch, probably also of one of the “servants” to whom Antipas imparted his belief that John the Baptist was risen from the dead. Joanna appears again in the history of the Resurrection (Luke 24:10). It is possible, as suggested in the Note on John 4:46, that he may have been identical with the “nobleman” or “member of the royal household” at Capernaum. On this supposition her ministration may have been the result of overflowing gratitude for the restored life of her son.

Susanna.—The name, which meant a “lily” (compare Rhoda, “a rose,” in Acts 12:13, and Tamar, “a palm,” in Genesis 38:6, 2 Samuel 13:2, as parallel instances of feminine names derived from flowers or trees), meets us in the well-known Apocryphal addition to the Book of Daniel known as Susanna and the Elders. Nothing further is known of the person so named.

Many others.—It seems clear that St. Luke must have come into personal contact with some, at least, of those whom he describes so fully. They were, we may well believe, among the eye-witnesses and ministers of the word (Luke 1:2) from whom he derived much of his information. (See Introduction.)

And when much people were gathered ...—The narrative is less precise than that in St. Matthew. It is possible that the parable may have been repeated more than once.

A sower went out to sow.—See Notes on Matthew 13:3-23. Better, the sower. The vivid touch that the seed was trodden down is peculiar to St. Luke.