John Gill Commentary Luke 10

After these things
After the calling and mission of the twelve apostles, and giving them their powers, commissions, andinstructions, with other things that followed thereon; (Luke 9:1) the Lord appointed otherseventy also ;
not that he has appointed before seventy, and now made an appointment of seventy more; but as the Syriacversion renders it, "Jesus separated out of his disciples, seventy others" that is, besides the twelve, whomhe chose and called out, from among the multitude of the disciples, and ordained them apostles, he selectedand ordained seventy others, in allusion to the seventy elders of Israel, (Numbers 11:16Numbers 11:24Numbers 11:25) . The Vulgate Latin and Persic versions read, "seventy two", and so does Epiphanius^F24 . The Jewish sanhedrim is sometimes said to consist of seventy one ^F25 , andsometimes of seventy two ^F26 ; though commonly said to be of the round number seventy, as thesedisciples might be.

The above mentioned ancient writer gives the names of some of them, as the seven deacons;Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas; together with Matthias, Mark, Luke,Justus, Barnabas, Apelies, Rufus, and Niger. The names of all these disciples, according to ancienttraditions, though not to be depended on, are given in an alphabetical order, with the places where theyafterwards presided as bishops, or pastors, by a late learned writer ^F1 , and are as follow, viz.Agabus, the prophet; Amphias, of Odyssus, sometimes called Amphiatus; Ananias, who baptized Paul, bishop ofDamascus; Andronicus, of Pannonia, or Spain; Apelies, of Smyrna, or, according to others, of Heraclea;Apollo, of Caesarea; Aristarchus, of Apamea; Aristobulus, of Britain; Artemas, of Lustra; Asyncritus, ofHyrcania; Barnabas, of Milgin; Barnabas, of Heraclea; Caesar, of Dyrrachium; Caius, of Ephesus; Carpus, ofBerytus, in Thracia; Cephas, bishop of Konia; Clemens, of Sardinia; Cleophas, of Jerusalem; Crescens, ofChalcedon, in Galatia; Demas, a priest of idols; Epaenetus, of Carthage; Epaphroditus, of Andriace; Erastus,of Paneas, or, according to others, of the Philippians; Evodus, of Antioch; Hermas, of Philippi, orPhilippolls; Hermes, of Dalmatia; Hermogenus and Phygellus, who followed Simon Magus; Hermogenus, bishop ofthe Megarenes; Herodion, of Tarsus; James, the brother of our Lord, of Jerusalem; Jason, of Tarsus; JesusJustus, bishop of Eleutheropolis: Linus, of Rome; Luke, the evangelist: Lucius, of Laodicea, in Syria; Mark,who is also John, of Biblopohs, or Byblus; Mark the evangelist, bishop of Alexandna; Mark, the sister's sonof Barnabas, bishop of Apolloma; Matthias, added to the apostles; Narcissus, of Athens; Nicanor, he died whenStephen suffered martyrdom; Nicolaus, of Samaria; Olympius, a martyr at Rome; Onesiphorus, bishop of Corone;Parmenas, of the Soli, Patrobulus, the same with Patrobas, in (Romans 16:14) of Puteoli, or as others, ofNaples; Philemon, of Gaza; Philemon (in the Acts he is called Philip), by whom the eunuch of the queen ofEthiopia was baptized, of Trallium, of Asia; Philologus, of Sinope; Phlegon, bishop of Marathon; Phygellus,of Ephesus; Prochorus, of Nicomedia, in Bithynia; Pudens; Quartus, of Berytus; Rhodion, a martyr at Rome;Rufus, of Thebes; Silas, of Corinth; Sylvanus, of Thessalonica; Sosipater, of Iconium; Sosthenes, ofColophon; Stachys, of Byzantium; Stephen, the first martyr; Tertius, of Iconium; Thaddaeus, who carried theepistle of Jesus to Edessa, to Abgarus; Timon, of Bostra, of the Arabians; Trophimus, who suffered martyrdorawith the Apostle Paul; Tychicus, bishop of Chalcedon, of Bithynia; Tychicus, of Colophon; Urbanus, ofMacedonm; and, Zenas, of Diospolis. According both to this account, and Epiphanius, Luke was one of theseseventy, and he is the only evangelist that makes mention of the appointment of them:

and sent them two and two before his face :
as he did the twelve before, to be his harbingers and forerunners:

into every city and place, where he himself would come :
which he intended to visit: he sent them beforehand to acquaint the inhabitants of it; and prepare them bytheir ministry, for the reception of him; as John the Baptist, who was in a more eminent sense the harbingerand forerunner of Christ, went before him in his ministry, and prepared the way for him.

FOOTNOTES:

• F24: Contr. Haeres. haeres. 20.
• F25: Maimon. Hilchot Sanhedrim, c. 1. sect. 3.
• F26: Misn. Yadim, c. 3. sect. 5. Aben Ezra in Num 11. 25.
• F1: Fabricii lux Evangelii, p. 115, 116

Therefore he said to them
That is, the "Lord Jesus", as the Ethiopic version expresses it; he said to the seventy disciples, what he had before said to the twelve apostles in (Matthew 9:37Matthew 9:38) where are the same words as here:

the harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few, pray you
therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth
labourers into his harvest ;
for though there was such a number of disciples called to the ministerial work, and sent out, there was still need of more; so great was the harvest of souls, or number of hearers, that the labourers were yet but few; and therefore the Lord of the harvest and whose all souls are, was to be prayed to to send forth more laborious preachers; (See Gill on Matthew 9:37). (See Gill on Matthew 9:38).

Go your ways
Into all the villages, towns, cities, and places, where he directed them to go, to make ready for him.

Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves ;
as harmless, innocent, profitable, and defenceless creatures, among spiteful, malicious, cunning, and cruel men; (See Gill on Matthew 10:16).

Carry neither purse
The Syriac version reads, "purses, "to put money, gold, silver, and brass in; and the prohibition regards the money in the purse chiefly:

nor scrip ;
the Syriac version here also reads in the plural number, "scrips", to put victuals in, provisions or any sort for their journey, which they were not to carry with them, any more than money, to buy food with

Nor shoes ;
any more than those they had upon their feet; (See Gill on Matthew 10:9) (See Gill on Matthew 10:10) and salute no man by the way; that they might not be retarded, and hindered in their journey by tedious ceremonies, and long inquiries into the health of persons and friends, and the business they were going about, and places where; and by discourses and confabulations, drawn out to great length, as was often the case at meeting on the road:

and, for the same reason, a like charge is given to Gehazi, (2 Kings 4:29) , and which, as the Jewish commentators on the place observe ^F1 , was, that he might not multiply words with persons he met with, and might not be stopped by the way; and that his intention might be in his work, and his mind might not turn to any other thing, either by word or deed.

So our Lord's intention, by this order was, not to teach them incivility, or to be morose and uncourteous; but that they might dispatch their business with the utmost expedition, and rather forego some common civilities and ceremonies, than to neglect, or, in the least, to hinder a work of so much importance they were sent about: and this was the more necessary, since, according to the Jewish maxim ^F2 ,``prevent every man with a salutation;'' they saluted all that they met, which took up time, and hindered business.

Some sorts of persons indeed were excused, as those who were mourners ^F3 for the dead, and such as kept fasts for rain ^F4 : but such were not these disciples; they neither mourned, nor fasted, nor could they, so long as the bridegroom was with them.

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: Jarchi, Kimchi, & R. Levi Ben Gersom in 2 Kings iv. 29.
• F2: Pirke Abot. c. 4. sect. 15.
• F3: T. Bab. in Misn. Moed Katon, c. 3. sect. 6.
• F4: Misn. Taanith, c. 1. sect. 7.

And into whatsoever house you enter
When you come into any city, town, or village,

first say, peace be to this house :
salute the inhabitants in the usual form, saying, peace be to you; wishing them all happiness and prosperity, temporal, spiritual, and eternal. This shows our Lord did not disapprove of civil salutations.