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Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Luke 15:13

Luke 15:13. With riotous living.— The phrase Ζων ασωτως implies, that he lived in every degree of luxury and sensuality. The account before us is short.—The interesting and affecting passages with which sucha transaction would necessarily be connected, are left to be supplied by the heart. The story is silent,—but nature is not. Much kind advice, and many a tender expostulation would fall from the father's lips, no doubt, upon this occasion. He would dissuade his son from the folly of so rash... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Luke 15:12

12. the younger—as the more thoughtless. said, c.—weary of restraint, panting for independence, unable longer to abide the check of a father's eye. This is man impatient of divine control, desiring to be independent of God, seeking to be his own master that "sin of sins, in which all subsequent sins are included as in their germ, for they are but the unfolding of this one" [TRENCH]. he divided, c.—Thus "God, when His service no longer appears a perfect freedom, and man promises himself... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Luke 15:13

13. not many days—intoxicated with his new—found resources, and eager for the luxury of using them at Will. a far country—beyond all danger of interference from home. wasted, c.—So long as it lasted, the inward monitor ( :-) would be silenced (Isaiah 9:10 Isaiah 57:10; Amos 4:6-10). riotous living— (Isaiah 57:10- :), "with harlots." Ah! but this reaches farther than the sensualist; for "in the deep symbolical language of Scripture fornication is the standing image of idolatry; they are in fact... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Luke 15:11-12

The man in the story had two sons, a younger one and an older one (Luke 15:25). Therefore the younger son’s inheritance would normally have been one-third of his father’s estate since the older son would have received a double portion (Deuteronomy 21:17). However, a disposition of the father’s estate before his death probably would have yielded this son about two-ninths of the total. [Note: J. D. M. Derrett, Law in the New Testament, p. 107.] Jesus did not explain the exact terms of the... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Luke 15:11-32

4. The parable of the lost son 15:11-32This third parable in the series again repeats the point of the former two that God gladly receives repentant sinners, but it stresses still other information. The joy of the father in the first part of the parable contrasts with the grumbling of the elder brother in the second part. The love of the father was equal for both his sons. Thus the parable teaches that God wants all people to experience salvation and to enter the kingdom."This parable is often... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Luke 15:13-16

Evidently the son turned his assets into cash and then departed to have fun. He may have wanted to "find himself," but he ended up losing himself. In the first parable, the sheep got lost because of its nature to wander away. In the second, the coin was lost due to circumstances beyond its control. In this third parable, the son gets lost as a result of his own choice. Feeding pigs was, of course, unclean work for a Jew and a job that any self-respecting Jew would only do out of total... read more

John Darby

Darby's Synopsis of the New Testament - Luke 15:12

15:12 of. (d-32) 'what they had to live on,' as 'substance,' 1 John 3:17 . read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Luke 15:1-32

Parables of the Lost Sheep, of them Lost Coin, of the Prodigal Son1-7. Parable of the Lost Sheep. See on Matthew 18:12-13. The first of a series of three parables for the encouragement of penitents. It shows the love of our Saviour for the outcast, the despised, and the criminal classes generally. It rebukes the Pharisees, who professed to be shepherds, for their neglect of that part of the flock that most needed their help, and lastly it indicates that the Pharisees are in many respects worse... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Luke 15:11

(11) And he said, A certain man had two sons.—We enter here on one of the parables which are not only peculiar to St. Luke’s Gospel, but have something of a different character, as giving more than those we find in the other Gospels, the incidents of a story of common daily life. As with the Good Samaritan, it seems open to us to believe that it rested on a substratum of facts that had actually occurred. It is obvious that in the then social state of Palestine, brought into contact as the Jews... read more

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