The Fallible Study Bible

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Luke4:42–44

Jesus Preaches in Judea

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

Luke 4:42–44 — Jesus Preaches in Judea. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

42

At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place, and the crowds were looking for Him. They came to Him and tried to keep Him from leaving.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Genomenēs hēmeras exelthōn eporeuthē eis erēmon topon kai hoi ochloi epezētoun auton kai ēlthon heōs autou kai kateichon auton mē tou poreuesthai ap’ autōn

Word by word25 · parsed
δὲdevvvG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΓενομένηςGenomenēsvvvG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Participle MiddleGenitive Feminine Singular
ginomai: to come to be, become Aorist middle participle in a genitive absolute with hēmeras. Luke does not say Jesus rose at dawn; he says the day came to be upon a man already gone. Mark's parallel (Mark 1:35) supplies the hour, and both Poole and Cambridge appeal to it here.
ἡμέραςhēmerasAt daybreakG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
ἐξελθὼνexelthōn[Jesus] went outG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἐπορεύθηeporeuthē. . .G4198
√ πορεύομαι — to traverse, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
poreuomai: to traverse, go, journey Aorist Indicative Passive. The verb of going that governs this whole unit: He goes out (here), the crowds try to stop His going (index 22), and He answers that He was sent (v. 43). Luke sets a movement in motion in the first clause that the rest of the pericope cannot arrest.
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
ἔρημονerēmona solitaryG2048
√ ἔρημος — desert, desolate, solitary, wildernessAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
erēmos: desert, desolate, solitary, wilderness Not merely an empty spot but the wilderness word, the same adjective that names John's preaching ground (Matthew 3:1) and the place Israel was led. The solitude is sought, not suffered. Henry's line stands: “A desert is no desert, if we are with Christ there.”
τόπονtoponplaceG5117
√ τόπος — a spot (general in space, but limited by occupancyNounAccusative Masculine Singular
topos: a place, a spot Function noun; it takes its weight entirely from the adjective before it.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ὄχλοιochloicrowdsG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounNominative Masculine Plural
ochlos: a throng, crowd Plural: crowds, not disciples. Luke keeps them a mass that wants something, and Gill is honest about what: not so much “love to Christ's person and presence” as “the miracles he wrought, and the corporal benefits he bestowed on them.”
ἐπεζήτουνepezētounwere looking forG1934
√ ἐπιζητέω — to search (inquire) forVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
epizēteō: to search out, seek after A relatively rare verb (12 verses in the Greek New Testament) and a loaded one: it is what an evil generation does after a sign (Matthew 16:4), what the nations do after food and clothing (Matthew 6:32), and what the pilgrims of faith do after a homeland and a city to come (Hebrews 11:14; 13:14). Luke does not tell us here which kind of seeking this was. The next clause does.
αὐτόνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἦλθονēlthonThey cameG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἕωςheōstoG2193
√ ἕως — a conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until (of time and place)Preposition
αὐτοῦautouHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
κατεῖχονkateichontried to keepG2722
√ κατέχω — to hold down (fast), in various applications (literally or figuratively)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
katechō: to hold down, hold fast, detain Imperfect, conative: they kept trying. The crowd's affection and the crowd's grip are the same gesture. JFB's contrast is exact: “What a contrast to the Gadarenes!” Those begged Him to leave; these will not let Him go. Neither wanted what He came to say.
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
μὴmē[from]G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
mē: not, lest With the articular infinitive at 21 and 22, a negative purpose construction: in order that He not go.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
πορεύεσθαιporeuesthaileavingG4198
√ πορεύομαι — to traverse, iVerbPresent Infinitive Middle or Passive
poreuomai: to go, journey Present infinitive, articular with tou mē. The crowds' whole aim, grammatically, is the negation of one verb: His going. Geneva turns that into the reader's problem, not just theirs.
ἀπ’ap’. . .G575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
αὐτῶνautōn. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
43

But Jesus told them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, because that is why I was sent.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de ho eipen pros autous hoti me dei euangelisasthai tēn basileian tou Theou tais heterais polesin Kai hoti epi touto apestalēn

Word by word21 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
εἶπενeipen[Jesus] toldG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
πρὸςprosG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
αὐτοὺςautousthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
hoti: that, because Here recitative, introducing direct speech; at index 17 the same particle is causal. Luke uses one word twice in one sentence for two different jobs.
μεmeIG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
δεῖdeimustG1163
√ δεῖ — also deon deh-on'VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
dei: it is necessary, it behoves Present indicative active, impersonal. This is the word that will carry the whole Lukan passion: the Son of Man must suffer, must be raised, must fulfil what is written. Its first appearance in Jesus' adult ministry in Luke is not about the cross but about preaching, which makes the preaching part of the same necessity. JFB reads the human cost of it honestly: “duty only could move Him to deny entreaties so grateful to His spirit.”
εὐαγγελίσασθαίeuangelisasthaipreach [the] good newsG2097
√ εὐαγγελίζω — to announce good news ("evangelize") especially the gospelVerbAorist Infinitive Middle
euangelizō: to announce good news Aorist middle infinitive. Luke has already used this verb of Jesus' own reading of Isaiah 61:1 in the Nazareth synagogue (Luke 4:18), where the Spirit anointed Him “to preach good news to the poor.” Here, a few days later, He gives that same verb as His reason for leaving a town that wants Him. The commission is not a text He read; it is the thing that moves His feet.
τὴνtēnof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
βασιλείανbasileiankingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
basileia: royalty, reign, kingdom The content of the announcement, not a place He is heading toward. Cambridge gathers Luke's own later illustrations of it: small beginnings in the mustard seed, hidden working in the leaven, and final triumph. What the crowds wanted was healings; what He says He owes them is a reign.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
ταῖςtaisto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Plural
ἑτέραιςheteraisotherG2087
√ ἕτερος — (an-, the) other or differentAdjectiveDative Feminine Plural
heteros: other, of a different kind Dative plural with the article, which is why Cambridge renders the phrase “to the rest of the cities” rather than “to other cities.” Heteros is not allos, another of the same sort; it is the word for a different kind, and Luke uses it of the other sort of soil, the other sort of debtor, the other sort of man at prayer. Placed against Capernaum, a town that had already seen the miracles and wanted them repeated, the adjective carries a mild rebuke: the towns He owes are not simply more towns like this one.
πόλεσινpolesintownsG4172
√ πόλις — a town (properly, with walls, of greater or less size)NounDative Feminine Plural
polis: a walled town, city Dative plural, the indirect object of the good news. The same noun stands in Hebrews 13:14 for the city that is still sought; Jesus owes His message to the cities that are here.
ΚαὶKaias wellG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὅτιhotibecauseG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ἐπὶepivvvG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τοῦτοtoutothat is whyG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἀπεστάληνapestalēnI was sentG649
√ ἀποστέλλω — set apart, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive1st Person Singular
apostellō: to send off with a commission Aorist Indicative Passive, 1st singular: a divine passive. Jesus answers a crowd's grip with a sender's authority, and the answer is a sentence about Himself in the passive voice. Gill: “as he was by his heavenly Father, and had himself also undertook and engaged to do it.”
44

And He continued to preach in the synagogues of Judea.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ēn kēryssōn eis tas synagōgas tēs Ioudaias

Word by word8 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἦνēnHe continuedG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
eimi: to be, exist Imperfect, forming the periphrasis with the participle at index 2. Luke ends the unit on a tense that does not finish.
κηρύσσωνkēryssōnto preachG2784
√ κηρύσσω — to herald (as a public crier), especially divine truth (the gospel)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
kēryssō: to herald, proclaim publicly Present participle. A kēryx does not debate or invent; he carries a message that is not his own and says it where everyone can hear. The verb answers v. 43's “I was sent”: a sent man heralds, and the heralding is the going.
εἰςeisinG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὰςtastheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
συναγωγὰςsynagōgassynagoguesG4864
√ συναγωγή — an assemblage of personsNounAccusative Feminine Plural
synagōgē: an assemblage, synagogue Accusative plural with eis. The solitary place of v. 42 and the synagogues of v. 44 frame the unit: He withdraws from the crowd that wants Him and walks into the assemblies that mostly will not.
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ἸουδαίαςIoudaiasof JudeaG2449
√ Ἰουδαία — the Judæan land (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
Ioudaia: the Judaean land The one genuinely contested word in the unit. Everything in the surrounding narrative is Galilean (Capernaum, the synagogue, the other towns of v. 43), so “of Judaea” is the harder reading and the easier one to see a copyist smoothing away; Cambridge lists א, B, C and L for it and draws the inference that Luke here assumes the Judaean ministry which only John narrates. Gill and Geneva, working from the received text, comment on Galilee. Either way the sentence says the same thing about Jesus: He kept going into the assemblies, which is precisely what the crowd of v. 42 was trying to prevent.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The day came to be upon a man already gone — Luke 4:42

⚙ Luke opens with a genitive absolute, Γενομένης ἡμέρας: the day came to be. It does not come upon a sleeper. Mark supplies the hour and both Poole and Cambridge appeal to him for it; Pulpit draws the picture, that “it was very early in the deep, dark dawn that the Redeemer was up again seeking fresh strength from his Father.” Cambridge states the purpose: “It was His object to escape into silence, and solitude, and prayer, without being observed by the multitudes.” The place is ἔρημον τόπον, and erēmos is the wilderness word, not merely a quiet corner. Note what Luke does not say. He does not say Jesus was tired, or hiding, or discouraged. He says only that the man who had spent a night casting out demons and healing the sick (so Henry, on the whole section) got up and went where no one was.

ii. Two imperfects: the seeking and the grip — Luke 4:42

⚙ The crowds arrive carrying two imperfect verbs. ἐπεζήτουν (G1934) is the intensified compound: they were searching hard after Him, and Ellicott notes the tense “implies continued seeking.” Cambridge adds Mark's blunter word for Peter's part in it, that he “hunted Him down.” Then κατεῖχον (G2722), to hold down fast: Cambridge calls it “the tentative imperfect,” they tried; Gill says flatly, “they laid hold on him, and held him.” JFB sets the scene against its opposite: “What a contrast to the Gadarenes!” One town begged Him to leave, this one will not let Him go, and Gill will not let the difference flatter Capernaum, judging their motive “not so much from love to Christ's person and presence” as “on account of the miracles he wrought.” Geneva turns the grip outward onto the reader: “No zealous response on the part of the people ought to hinder us in the race that God has appointed unto us.” The warmest hands in the passage are the ones in the way.

iii. It is binding on me: the necessity that answers the grip — Luke 4:43

⚙ Jesus does not answer affection with affection. He answers it with δεῖ, the impersonal verb of obligation, with me in the accusative: Cambridge, “It behoves me,” the “‘must’ of moral obligation.” The thing that is binding is εὐαγγελίσασθαί, which Ellicott insists is “quite distinct from that commonly translated ‘preach,’” and its content is τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ Θεοῦ, a reign rather than a cure. Cambridge traces how Luke will later illustrate that kingdom, in its small beginnings, its hidden working, and its final triumph. And the ground of the obligation is a passive: ἀπεστάλην, I was sent. Gill names the Sender the verb leaves unnamed, “as he was by his heavenly Father, and had himself also undertook and engaged to do it.” JFB weighs the cost of the refusal without sentimentality: “duty only could move Him to deny entreaties so grateful to His spirit.” Poole, arguing his own Puritan case, presses the observation home: “Christ omitted opportunities of working miracles that he might preach to other cities.”

iv. A tense that does not finish — Luke 4:44

⚙ The unit closes on a periphrastic imperfect, ἦν κηρύσσων, which Cambridge renders “He was preaching, implying a continued ministry.” The verb changes: v. 43 said euangelizō (the content, good news), v. 44 says kēryssō (the office, a public herald). And the preposition is eis, into: He goes into synagogue after synagogue, which is the very going the crowds had tried to prevent. The place name is contested. Cambridge records that א, B, C, L and other uncials read “of Judaea” where the received text read “of Galilee,” and suggests it is one of the Synoptic traces of the Judaean ministry John alone narrates; Gill and Geneva, writing from the older text, comment on Galilee. Henry, commenting on the whole section, lets the imperfect run to its end: He “will continue with us, by his word and Spirit, and extend the same blessings to other nations.”

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested by Scripture. Three verses, and the hinge of them is that the obstacle to the gospel here is not hostility but welcome. Nazareth tried to throw Him off a cliff (Luke 4:29) and He walked away; Capernaum tried to keep Him and He walked away from that too, and only the second refusal needed explaining. What the crowds offered was real: they had seen demons go out and fevers break, and they wanted more of exactly that, for their own sick, in their own town. Jesus does not call the wanting wrong. He calls it insufficient grounds, because δεῖ has already spoken over Him and He is not free to be kept. Read the two passives together and the shape is clear: eporeuthē, He was made to go, and apestalēn, I was sent. A sent man's kindness to the town in front of him is limited by his debt to the towns behind the hill. Notice also what He refuses to trade. They wanted the miracles; He insists the errand is the announcing of a kingdom, and the miracles were only ever the herald's credentials. The seeking verb Luke chose, epizēteō, is the same verb the letter to the Hebrews gives to people who seek a homeland and a city still to come. Capernaum used it on a city they already had. That is the difference between seeking Christ and seeking Christ's effects, and it is a difference most of us discover only when He declines to stay. The line below is a synthesis line, not Scripture, and should be tested as such.

They held Him because they loved what He did; He left because of what He was sent to say.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The verb for seeking hard: what a crowd seeks, and what pilgrims seek verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ ἐπεζήτουν (epizēteō, G1934) is a comparatively rare New Testament verb, and its company is instructive. An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign (Matthew 12:39; 16:4). The nations seek after food and clothing (Matthew 6:32; Luke 12:30). But the pilgrims of faith seek after a homeland, and the letter to the Hebrews uses the same verb again for the city to come which we seek after here and now (Hebrews 11:14; 13:14). Luke uses the word of Capernaum without telling us which kind of seeking it was; Gill, reading the next verse back into this one, judges it the seeking of “the corporal benefits he bestowed on them.” The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme across all these places; the judgment about the crowd's motive is Gill's, and the arrangement of the parallels is ours.

Matthew 16:4 · Matthew 6:32 · Hebrews 11:14 · Hebrews 13:14

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1934 ἐπιζητέω (in 12 vv), a rare verb; Hebrews 13:14 additionally shares G4172 πόλις (in 155 vv) with Luke 4:43. All refs are Greek New Testament, so the lexical link is direct and no cross-language claim is involved. This is a shared-word link, not a quotation of one text by another.

Holding down: the same verb for a crowd's grip and a church's grasp structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The crowds κατεῖχον Him (katechō, G2722), held Him down, and Cambridge marks the imperfect as tentative: they tried. Paul uses that verb for something we are commanded to do: the gospel saves “if you hold fast (katechete) the word I preached to you” (1 Corinthians 15:2), a verse which shares with this unit not only katechō but euangelizō, the very verb of Luke 4:43. The same grip is right on the message and wrong on the Messenger. Luke 14:9 gives the ordinary social sense (holding a place at table), and 2 Thessalonians 2:7 the mysterious restraining sense. ⚙ We do not claim Luke intends any allusion; the point is that one Greek word holds together the crowd that will not release Him and the church that must not release His word, and we offer that as a reading to be tested, not as a demonstrated authorial link.

1 Corinthians 15:2 · Luke 14:9 · 2 Thessalonians 2:7

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2722 κατέχω (in 17 vv) with all three refs, plus G2097 εὐαγγελίζω (in 52 vv) shared with 1 Corinthians 15:2. Downgraded from verbal because κατέχω is common enough, and because the connection we draw is a contrast of usage rather than a quotation or an authorial echo.

The solitary place: where the herald goes before he heralds structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ ἔρημον τόπον at Luke 4:42 recurs almost word for word at Mark 1:45, where the cleansed leper's publicity drives Jesus out so that “He was outside in solitary places” and the crowds come to Him from every direction: the same withdrawal, the same pursuit, the same refusal to be made a local attraction. Matthew 3:1 puts John heralding in the wilderness (erēmos) using the same verb, kēryssō, that closes this unit. Cambridge locates Luke's desert concretely, noting that even in that densely populated district such a place could be found “in such hill ravines as the Vale of Doves.” The wilderness in the Gospels is not an absence of people; it is the one place where the message is not shaped by the audience.

Mark 1:45 · Matthew 3:1

basis: Verifier: Mark 1:45 shares G5117 τόπος (in 89 vv), G2048 ἔρημος (in 48 vv) and G1831 ἐξέρχομαι (in 212 vv); Matthew 3:1 shares G2250 ἡμέρα (in 368 vv), G2048 ἔρημος (in 48 vv) and G2784 κηρύσσω (in 60 vv). All are common lexemes, so the link is recorded as a shared pattern of withdrawal and proclamation, not as a quotation.

Into the wilderness to speak: Hosea and Elijah behind the solitary place structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Two Old Testament scenes stand behind a man who goes out before dawn into the wilderness. In Hosea 2:14 the LORD allures His people, brings them into the wilderness, and speaks tenderly to them there: the desert is where God talks. In 1 Kings 19:4-12 Elijah, fresh from a public triumph that a nation misread, goes a day's journey into the desert alone and is met not in the wind or the earthquake but in a low whisper, then sent back with an errand. Luke's Jesus goes out, is found by a crowd, and comes back out of the solitude with a commission on His lips. ⚙ We claim resemblance of pattern only, and we note what does not match: Elijah fled his work and had to be sent back to it, while Jesus withdrew from acclaim and returned to a work He was already under orders to do.

Hosea 2:14 · 1 Kings 19:4-12

basis: Cross-Testament: the Gospel text is Greek and these refs are Hebrew, so no shared Strong's number can be computed and no verbal tier is possible. The recorded basis is the shared narrative pattern of solitary withdrawal into the wilderness followed by divine speech and a renewed commission. Stated as pattern, not as quotation or allusion claimed by Luke.

Because that is why I was sent: the commission of Isaiah 61 still driving Him structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ One unit earlier, in the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus read Isaiah 61:1 aloud and applied it to Himself (Luke 4:18): the Spirit anointed Him euangelisasthai, to announce good news, and apestalken, has sent Him. Here at Luke 4:43 both of those words return, now in His own mouth and out of any scroll: it is binding on me euangelisasthai the kingdom of God, because for this apestalēn, I was sent. Ellicott is careful that this verb is not the ordinary word for preaching. The prophetic sense of being sent, and of having no say in the going, also stands behind Isaiah 6:8 and Jeremiah 1:7, where the prophet must go wherever he is sent and speak whatever he is commanded. ⚙ The Isaiah 61 connection is not our invention, since Luke himself made it at 4:18, but here it is an echo of that earlier citation rather than a fresh quotation, and the Greek to Hebrew link cannot be verified lexically.

Isaiah 61:1 · Luke 4:18 · Isaiah 6:8 · Jeremiah 1:7

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so shared Strong's numbers are not computable and a verbal tier is excluded. Luke 4:43 makes no formal quotation; the basis is that Luke himself quoted Isaiah 61:1 at Luke 4:18 with the cognate verbs of announcing good news and being sent, and the same two ideas reappear here as Jesus' stated reason for leaving. Isaiah 6:8 and Jeremiah 1:7 are adduced for the prophetic pattern of commissioned sending only.

The Shepherd who goes out after the scattered, rather than settling in one fold typological

⚙ Ezekiel 34 indicts shepherds who feed themselves and stay put, and then announces that God Himself will search for His sheep, seek them out, and bring them from all the places where they were scattered, on a day of clouds and darkness. Luke 4:43 has the Shepherd refusing to remain in the fold that wants Him, precisely because other towns have not heard. ⚙ This is a figural reading and we mark it as such: Luke does not cite Ezekiel here, and the verbal correspondence cannot be tested across the languages. It is widely held in Christian exegesis that Ezekiel 34 is fulfilled in Christ (John 10 makes the shepherd claim explicit), but the specific application to this itinerancy is our own arrangement.

Ezekiel 34:11-16 · John 10:11

basis: Cross-Testament figural reading, so no shared-lexeme basis exists and no verbal tier is possible. The shepherd-fulfilment of Ezekiel 34 in Christ is ancient and widely held (John 10:11 makes the claim explicitly); the narrower application to Jesus leaving Capernaum for the other towns is a novel arrangement by this tool and should be tested.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Sent One: a passive verb where a claim was expected ancient/widely-held

⚙ Pressed to stay, Jesus gives no argument about His own authority. He gives a passive: ἀπεστάλην, I was sent (G649, apostellō, to send off with a commission). The Sender is not named in the clause, and that omission is the doctrine: the Son's whole itinerary is an obedience. Gill supplies what the grammar implies, that He was sent “by his heavenly Father,” and adds the second half that Reformed exegesis has always insisted on, that He “had himself also undertook and engaged to do it.” This is the sending that Luke has already grounded in Isaiah 61:1 at Luke 4:18, and that John's Gospel will turn into a title, the One whom the Father sent, and then hand on: “As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you” (John 20:21). JFB records the cost of it here, that “duty only could move Him to deny entreaties so grateful to His spirit.” The reading that Christ's ministry is constituted by His being sent from the Father is not novel; it is apostolic and is assumed by Ellicott, JFB, Gill and Cambridge alike in this unit.

Isaiah 61:1 · Luke 4:18 · John 20:21

It is binding on me: the first δεῖ points at the last ancient/widely-held

⚙ δεῖ (G1163) is Luke's word for the divine necessity that governs the Christ. It will carry the passion predictions and the Emmaus rebuke, that the Christ had to suffer these things and enter His glory (Luke 24:26), and the risen Lord's insistence that everything written of Him must be fulfilled (Luke 24:44). Cambridge reads the present instance exactly right as the “‘must’ of moral obligation.” ⚙ What we would draw out is the order: in Luke the first thing the Christ says He must do is not die but announce the kingdom to towns that have not heard. The necessity that ends at Golgotha begins at a road out of Capernaum, and it is one necessity, not two. Poole, pursuing a different argument, observes the same priority in the event itself: “Christ omitted opportunities of working miracles that he might preach to other cities.”

Luke 24:26 · Luke 24:44 · Mark 1:38

The kingdom, not the cures: what He owed them and what they asked for ancient/widely-held

⚙ The crowd's request and Christ's answer are not about geography. They asked, in effect, for the continuation of miracles; He replies that what is binding on Him is to announce τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ Θεοῦ. The healings of the previous night were never the errand; they were the herald's credentials, which is why the herald can leave them behind. Gill is blunt about the motive he detects in Capernaum, that their holding Him was “on account of the miracles he wrought, and the corporal benefits he bestowed on them.” Cambridge, on the kingdom itself, gathers Luke's own later pictures of small beginnings, hidden working, and final triumph. ⚙ The redemptive-historical weight is this: the King announces His reign before He is enthroned, and He announces it by walking. A kingdom that must be proclaimed to the other towns is already a kingdom that will not stop at Israel, which Henry, commenting on the whole section, saw when he wrote that He will “extend the same blessings to other nations.”

Mark 1:14-15 · Daniel 2:44 · Acts 1:8

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbering; parses and glosses in the notes above are taken from that interlinear and not from the tool's own analysis. One genuine variant governs this unit. At Luke 4:44 BSB prints “of Judea”; the received text behind the King James, and therefore behind Gill and Geneva, reads “of Galilee.” Cambridge names the witnesses for Judaea (א, B, C, L and other uncials) and draws the inference that it may be a Synoptic trace of the Judaean ministry John alone narrates. We have kept both: the BSB text stands, and Gill's and Geneva's comments are quoted as they wrote them, with an editorial note attached. Readers should know that Gill's harmonizing phrase “other cities of Galilee and Judea” at v. 43 belongs to his own pre-critical text base.

⚙ Sources: Matthew Henry's note here is on the whole block Luke 4:31-44, not on any single verse, and is quoted as a comment on the section. Barnes offers no exposition for these verses (he refers the reader to Mark 1:21-39) and so is not quoted. Poole likewise refers to his own notes on Mark 1:35-39; the sentence quoted from him sits inside a long polemic about preaching versus other ministerial duties, and that context is flagged in its editorial note. JFB's single note printed under both 4:43 and 4:44 is quoted once.

⚙ What is uncertain: no formal Old Testament quotation occurs in these three verses. Every Old Testament thread above is therefore tiered structural or typological, because a Greek text and a Hebrew text cannot share a Strong's number and no verbal basis can be computed. The Hosea 2:14 and 1 Kings 19 links are pattern resemblances proposed by this tool; the Isaiah 61:1 link is stronger only because Luke himself made it one unit earlier at 4:18, and even there it is an echo here rather than a citation. The Ezekiel 34 reading is marked typological and its specific application is our own. Gill's judgment of the crowd's motive at v. 42 is a judgment, not a datum: Luke states only that they sought Him and tried to hold Him. The reading of ἐπορεύθη as theologically passive is offered tentatively, since the verb is ordinarily deponent in usage; nothing in the threads rests on it.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)