John Calvin Commentary Luke 24:44

"And he said unto them, These are my words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me." — Luke 24:44 (ASV)

These are the words. Though it will afterwards appear from Matthew and Mark that a discourse similar to this was delivered in Galilee, yet I think it probable that Luke now relates what happened on the day after his resurrection. For what John says of that day, that he breathed on them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost, (John 20:22) agrees with the words of Luke which here immediately follow, that he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.

By these words Christ indirectly reproves their gross and shameful forgetfulness. Though they had long ago been fully informed of his future resurrection, they were as much astonished as if it had never been mentioned to them. The import of his words is: “Why do you hesitate as if this had been a new and unexpected occurrence, while it is only what I frequently predicted to you? Why do you not rather remember my words? For if previously you have considered me worthy of credit, you ought to have known this from my instructions before it happened.”

In short, Christ tacitly complains that his labor has been thrown away on the apostles, since his instruction has been forgotten.

All things which are written concerning me. He now rebukes them more sharply for their slowness, declaring that he brought forward nothing new but only reminded them of what had been declared by the Law and the Prophets, with which they ought to have been familiar from their childhood.

But though they had been ignorant of the whole doctrine of religion, nothing could have been more unreasonable than not to readily embrace what they knew had undoubtedly proceeded from God. For it was a principle admitted by the whole nation that there was no religion other than what was contained in the Law and the Prophets.

The present division of the Scriptures is fuller than what we find in other passages; for besides the Law and the Prophets, he adds, in the third place, the Psalms. These, though they might properly have been counted among the Prophets, have something distinct and peculiar to themselves.

Yet the division into two parts, which we have seen elsewhere (Luke 16:16; John 1:45), nevertheless embraces the whole of Scripture.