Luke 4:17

Delivered unto him. That is, by the deacon, or chazzan, whose duty it was to remove the sacred scrolls from the ark and hand them to the reader, and to return them to the ark at the close of the reading (see p. 56). Thus in harmony with synagogue ritual, the chazzan took the roll of the Prophets from the ark, removed the cover and handed it, unopened, to Jesus. It is apparent that Jesus not only spoke the common language of the people but was also well read in Hebrew — by that time a more or less dead language except for religious purposes. The lesson for the day was always read in Hebrew.

Esaias. That is, Isaiah. It is thought that in the time of Christ the one asked to read the lesson from the Prophets and to preach the sermon, might choose the section to be read. Jesus specifically asked for the roll of the prophet Isaiah (see Additional Note at the end of this chapter).

Opened. Textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 146) for the reading “unfolded,” or “unrolled.”

Book. Gr. biblion, “a book,” or “a scroll.” The English “Bible” comes from this word. This “book” was a scroll. See p. 113.

Found the place. Jesus continued unrolling the scroll from the roller until He came to the passage He desired to read, at the same time rolling up, with the other hand, the portion passed by (see the picture of the Dead Sea Isaiah scroll, Vol. I, p. 33). Isaiah 61:1, 2 would be almost at the end of the scroll.

Where it was written. The quotation as given by Luke agrees with the LXX of Isa. 61:1, 2a, except for the omission of the clause, in many ancient manuscripts, “to heal the brokenhearted,” and the insertion of the clause, “to set at liberty them that are bruised,” by a paraphrase of Isa. 58:6. Luke probably had the LXX of his day before him as he wrote (see on ch. 3:36). It was a common Jewish practice thus to link various passages of Scripture together (see on Mark 1:2).