Luke 4:34 — Community Reflections

LUKE 4:34 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.”

Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God — the demon's speech combines the command to go away (an attempt to repel) with the accurate confession (I know who you are — the Holy One of God). What do you want with us is the Hebrew idiom of incompatibility. Have you come to destroy us: the demon understands the eschatological significance of Jesus' arrival. The Messianic Secret begins: the demon knows, but the congregation does not yet.

Church Fathers on Luke 4:34

Neither indignation at their treatment, nor displeasure at their wickedness, caused our Lord to abandon Judea, but unmindful of His injuries, and remembering mercy, at one time by teaching, at another by healing, He softens the hearts of this unbelieving people, as it is said, And he went down to Capernaum.
Ambrose · 4th century

For although He knew that they were disobedient and hard of heart, He nevertheless visits them, as a good Physician tries to heal those who are suffering from a mortal disease. But He taught them boldly in the synagogues, as Esaias said, I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth. On the sabbath day also He disputed with them, because they were at leisure. They wondered therefore at the mightiness of His teaching, His virtue, and His power, as it follows, And…
Cyril of Alexandria · 5th century

The word of the teacher is with power, when he performs that which he teaches. But he who by his actions belies what he preaches is despised.
Bede · 8th century

Read all 17 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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