Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 9:18

"And it came to pass, as he was praying apart, the disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Who do the multitudes say that I am?" — Luke 9:18 (ASV)

And it came to pass . . .—Saint Luke, it will be noted, omits the narrative of our Lord’s walking on the water, of the feeding of the Four Thousand, of the Syro-Phoenician woman, and of the teaching concerning the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. We can only offer a conjectural explanation for these phenomena, but it is possible that, as a matter of fact, he simply did not learn these facts in the course of his inquiries and therefore did not insert them. As far as it goes, this fact suggests that he had not seen the Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint Mark in the form in which we now have them. On the narrative that follows (Luke 9:18–27), see Notes on Matthew 16:13-28; Mark 8:27; Mark 9:1.

As he was alone praying.—There is, as before (see Introduction, and Notes on Luke 3:21; Luke 5:16; Luke 6:12), something characteristic in the stress which Saint Luke lays on the fact. It is as though he saw in what follows the result of the previous prayer.