Luke 9:57-62

§ 50. SELECTION OF CANDIDATES, Luke 9:57-62 .

Matthew 8:18-27; Mark 4:35-41.

A fuller study of this passage induces us to think that Luke preserves its true place. We can scarce doubt that between the sending forth the messengers above described, the selection and rejection of candidates in this paragraph, and the commissioning of the Seventy, which follows, there is an important connection. If we may suppose that one part of the business of the messengers was to enlist and gather the Seventy, and that these colloquies are part of the examination of Jesus into their qualifications we may easily infer the time and nearly the place at which the Seventy were sent forth. The time must have been just before the FEAST OF TABERNACLES, and the place must have been on the route to Jerusalem from Capernaum. The address to the cities of Galilee in Luke 10:13-15 could have scarce been further away than the boundary line of Judea on his last departure from those cities. The place would therefore be not far from Shiloh or Ephraim. See our notes on the parallel passage in Matthew.