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Selected Verse: Luke 15:24 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Lu 15:24 |
King James |
For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
my son--now twice his son.
dead . . . lost--to me; to himself--to my service, my satisfaction; to his own dignity, peace, profit.
alive again . . . found--to all these.
merry--(See on Luk 15:10). |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Was dead - This is capable of two significations:
1. "I supposed" that he was dead, but I know now that he is alive.
2. He was "dead to virtue" - he was sunk in pleasure and vice.
The word is not unfrequently thus used. See Ti1 5:6; Mat 8:22; Rom 6:13. Hence, to be restored to "virtue" is said to be restored again to life, Rom 6:13; Rev 3:1; Eph 2:1. It is probable that this latter is the meaning here. See Luk 15:32.
Was lost - Had wandered away from home, and we knew not where he was. |
| Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent [1886] |
Is alive - is found (ἀνέζησεν - εὑρέθη)
Both aorists, and pointing back to a definite time in the past; doubtless the moment when he "came to himself." Wyc., hath lived.
The Prodigal Son is a favorite subject in Christian art. The return of the penitent is the point most frequently chosen, but the dissipation in the far country and the degradation among the swine are also treated. The dissipation is the subject of an interesting picture by the younger Teniers in the gallery of the Louvre. The prodigal is feasting at a table with two courte-sans, in front of an inn, on the open shutter of which a tavern-score is chalked. An old woman leaning on a stick begs alms, possibly foreshadowing the fate of the females at the table. The youth holds out his glass, which a servant fills with wine. In the right-hand corner appears a pigsty where a stable-boy is feeding the swine, but with his face turned toward the table, as if in envy of the gay revellers there. All the costumes and other details of the picture are Dutch. Holbein also represents him feasting with his mistress, and gambling with a sharper who is sweeping the money off the table. The other points of the story are introduced into the background. Jan Steen paints him at table in a garden before an inn. A man plays the guitar, and two children are blowing bubbles - "an allegory of the transient pleasures of the spendthrift." Mrs. Jameson remarks that the riotous living is treated principally by the Dutch painters. The life among the swine is treated by Jordaens in the Dresden Gallery. The youth, with only a cloth about his loins, approaches the trough where the swine are feeding, extends his hand, and seems to ask food of a surly swineherd, who points him to the trough. In the left-hand corner a young boor is playing on a pipe, a sorrowful contrast to the delicious music of the halls of pleasure. Salvator Rosa pictures him in a landscape, kneeling with clasped hands amid a herd of sheep, oxen, goats, and swine. Rubens, in a farm-stable, on his knees near a trough, where a woman is feeding some swine. He looks imploringly at the woman. One of the finest examples of the treatment of the return is by Murillo, in the splendid picture in the gallery of the Duke of Sutherland. It is thus described by Stirling ("Annals of the Artists of Spain"): "The repentant youth, locked in the embrace of his father, is, of course, the principal figure; his pale, emaciated countenance bespeaks the hardships of his husk-coveting time, and the embroidery on his tattered robe the splendor of his riotous living. A little white dog, leaping up to caress him, aids in telling the story. On one side of this group a man and a boy lead in the farted calf; on the other appear three servants bearing a light-blue silk dress of Spanish fashion, and the gold ring; and one of them seems to be murmuring at the honors in preparation for the lost one." |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| Was dead - Lost to all good - given up to all evil. In this figurative sense the word is used by the best Greek writers. See many examples in Kypke. |
10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
32 It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.
1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
1 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
6 But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.