Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 9:57-60

"And as they went on the way, a certain man said unto him, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven [have] nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But he said unto him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but go thou and publish abroad the kingdom of God." — Luke 9:57-60 (ASV)

Lord, I will follow thee.—See Notes on Matthew 8:19-22. The two anecdotes, if we may so call them, are placed by the two Evangelists in a very different connection. It is clear that their isolated, fragmentary character, with no definite notes of time and place, left a large margin to the discretion of each compiler as to where they should appear. The difference between the “certain man” of St. Luke’s report, and the “scribe” of St. Matthew’s, slight as it is, takes its place among the signs of the mutual independence of the two Gospels.