Luke 19:27

But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(27) But those mine enemies.—This feature of the parable is peculiar to St. Luke’s report. Like the earlier portions of the outer framework of the story, it had an historical groundwork in the conduct of Archelaus on his return from Rome (Jos. Wars, ii. 7, § 3). Spiritually, it represents, in bold figures drawn from the acts of tyrant kings, the ultimate victory of the Christ over the unbelieving and rebellious. (Comp. 1Corinthians 15:25.) They who will not have Him to reign over them will learn that He does reign, and having shut Love out, will themselves be shut out from Love.

Benson Commentary

Luke 19:27. But those mine enemies, &c. — Having thus inquired into the conduct of his servants, and treated them according to the different use they made of what had been intrusted with them, he then proceeded to pass sentence on his rebellious citizens, who had refused to have him for their king; and with a just resentment of their base ingratitude, he commanded them to be brought thither immediately, and slain in his presence, that others might learn a more dutiful submission by the execution of these rebels. The word κατασφαξατε, here rendered slay them, properly signifies, slay them with the sword, and seems first to refer to the dreadful slaughter of the impenitent Jews, by the sword of each other and of the Romans. But that does not seem to be the chief design of the passage; it more especially relates to the far more terrible execution which shall be done on all impenitent sinners in the great day, when the faithful servants of Christ shall be rewarded. Now all this was as if our Lord had said, Thus shall I at length appear, not as a temporal sovereign, but as the great eternal Judge and victorious Ruler over all; when, having received power and dominion from my Father, I shall bring all to their final account, and with infinite ease triumph over those who reject and affront my authority: take heed, therefore, that you be not found in their wretched number, as many will be who pretend most eagerly to desire the Messiah’s appearance.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:11-27 This parable is like that of the talents, Mt 25. Those that are called to Christ, he furnishes with gifts needful for their business; and from those to whom he gives power, he expects service. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal, 1Co 12:7. And as every one has received the gift, so let him minister the same, 1Pe 4:10. The account required, resembles that in the parable of the talents; and the punishment of the avowed enemies of Christ, as well as of false professors, is shown. The principal difference is, that the pound given to each seems to point out the gift of the gospel, which is the same to all who hear it; but the talents, distributed more or less, seem to mean that God gives different capacities and advantages to men, by which this one gift of the gospel may be differently improved.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For I say ... - These are the words of the "nobleman" declaring the principles on which he would distribute the rewards of his kingdom.

But those mine enemies - By the punishment of those who would not that he should reign over them is denoted the ruin that was to come upon the Jewish nation for rejecting the Messiah, and also upon all sinners for not receiving him as their king. See the notes at the parable of the talents in Matthew 25.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

27. bring hither, &c.—(Compare 1Sa 15:32, 33). Referring to the awful destruction of Jerusalem, but pointing to the final destruction of all that are found in open rebellion against Christ.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 19:12"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But those mine enemies,.... Meaning particularly the Jews, who were enemies to the person of Christ, and hated and rejected him, as the King Messiah; and rebelled against him, and would not submit to his government; and were enemies to his people, and were exceeding mad against them, and persecuted them; and to his Gospel, and the distinguishing truths of it, and to his ordinances, which they rejected against themselves:

which would not that I should reign over them; see Luke 19:14

bring hither, and slay them before me; which had its accomplishment in the destruction of Jerusalem, when multitudes of them were slain with the sword, both with their own, and with their enemies; and to this the parable has a special respect, and of which Christ more largely discourses in this chapter; see Luke 19:41 though it is true of all natural men, that they are enemies to Christ; and so of all negligent and slothful professors, and ministers of the word, who, when Christ shall come a second time, of which his coming to destroy the Jewish nation was an emblem and pledge, will be punished with everlasting destruction by him; and then all other enemies will be slain and destroyed, sin, Satan, the world, and death: of the first of these the Jews say (n),

"in the time to come the holy, blessed God, will bring forth the evil imagination (or corruption of nature), "and slay it before" the righteous, and the wicked.''

(n) T. Bab. Succa, fol. 52. 1.

Geneva Study Bible

But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Luke 19:27. Πλήν] Besides—breaking off. The further arrangement of the king turns away now, that is to say, from the slaves just conferred with, and has to do with those enemies, Luke 19:14, about whom the decision is still pending.

τούτους (see the critical remarks), although referring to those who were absent, describes them as present in the idea of the speaker and the hearers, Wolf, ad Dem. Lept. p. 295; Heindorf, ad Phaed. p. 60; Bornemann, Schol. p. 120.

κατασφάξ.] Slay them; the strong expression is chosen as shadowing forth the completeness of the condemnation to everlasting death at the final judgment. Comp. Xen. Anab. iv. 1. 23; Herod. viii. 127; Soph. O. R. 730; Diod. Sic. xii. 76; 2Ma 5:12.

The doctrine of the parable, according to Luke’s form of it, concerns, on the one hand, the Jewish people that would not receive Jesus as the Messiah (comp. John 1:11); and, on the other, the disciples who were to make application of the official charge entrusted to them (the μνᾶ which each had equally received) zealously as far as possible in the interest of the Messiah until His Parousia. The Messiah thus appears in a twofold relation: to His perverse people and to His servants. The latter are to be called to account at the Parousia, and according to the measure of the actual discharge of official duty committed equally to all, will be exalted to a proportionally high degree of participation in the Messianic dominion (comp. Romans 5:17; Romans 8:17; 1 Corinthians 4:8; 2 Timothy 2:12). This happiness, however, will be so far from falling to the lot of the indolent servant, who in any case is inexcusable,[234] that he was rather to be deprived of the official position of service which he had received, and consequently was to receive no kind of share in the future glory of the kingdom, to which, nevertheless, he also had been appointed. But the former, the antagonistic Jews, are to be dealt with by the returning Messiah with the heaviest punishments.

[234] Ver. 23 serves to mark this inexcusableness in the concrete illustration. The text does not give any further verbal interpretation of the banker’s counter. Lange, L. J. II. 1, p. 414, finds that by the τράπεζα is depicted the church or the congregation to which the office might have been given back.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 19:27. Yet this feature is not inapposite, for there were likely to be three classes of people to be dealt with by the king: the honest and capable, the incapable and useless, and the disaffected. The chief objection to the part refening to the second class is that it gives the parable a too didactic aspect, aiming at theoretic exhaustiveness rather than insisting on the main points: how the king will deal with his friends and how with his foes.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

27. mine enemies] They had once been ‘citizens,’ Luke 19:14.

slay them before me] Archelaus had similarly put some of his political opponents to death. This, too, corresponds to ulterior truths—the ruin and massacre of the unbelieving Jews. Comp. 1 Corinthians 15:25.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 19:27. Ἐχθροὺς, enemies) now no longer citizens; for they had hated Him, Luke 19:14.—ἐκείνους, those) Join this word with ἐχθροὺς: comp. note [208]. For ἐκείνους, those, has reference to Luke 19:14, and from it the appellation, enemies, is here inferred.[209]—ἘΠʼ ΑὐΤΟῪς) The reciprocal pronoun (“over themselves”).—κατασφάξατε, slay) Implying degrees of punishments. Comp. [the case of these enemies with that of the unprofitable servant, Luke 19:24] Luke 19:26.—ἔμπροσθέν μου, before me, in my presence) A just spectacle.

[208] And a different character, as ἕτερος implies.—E. and T.

[209] Therefore ἐκείνους is the better reading, supported as it is by Aabc Vulg. and D (before τοὺς ἐχθροὺς). Orig. 3,634c, Lucif. BL Memph. read τούτους. Lachm. and Rec. Text adopt ἐκείνους; Tisch. τούτους.—E. and T.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 27. - But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. An obvious reference to the Lord's dealings with the chosen people, and an unmistakable reference to the awful ruin and disaster which was so soon to overwhelm the city and temple and the whole nationality. But behind this temporal reference there looms in the background the vast shadow of a terrible eternal doom reserved for the enemies of the Redeemer. Godet has a beautiful and suggestive note on the signification of the ten and five cities, the reward of the faithful toiler here. "They," the "cities," "represent mortal beings in a lower state of development, but whom the glorified faithful are commissioned to raise to their Divine destination." Luke 19:27

Vincent's Word Studies

But (πλὴν)

Rev., howbeit. However it may be with the unfaithful servant.

Slay (κατασφάξατε)

Only here in New Testament. A strong word: slaughter; cut them down (κατά).