Luke 20:18

Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18) Whosoever shall fall upon that stone.—See Note on Matthew 21:44. The verse, which is omitted by many of the best MSS. in St. Matthew, is found in all MSS. of St. Luke. If we were to receive it, on this evidence, as belonging strictly to the latter Gospel only, the Greek word for “bruised” might take its place among those classical, or perhaps quasi-medical, terms characteristic of St. Luke. (See Note on Luke 20:12, and Introduction.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:9-19 Christ spake this parable against those who resolved not to own his authority, though the evidence of it was so full. How many resemble the Jews who murdered the prophets and crucified Christ, in their enmity to God, and aversion to his service, desiring to live according to their lusts, without control! Let all who are favoured with God's word, look to it that they make proper use of their advantages. Awful will be the doom, both of those who reject the Son, and of those who profess to reverence Him, yet render not the fruits in due season. Though they could not but own that for such a sin, such a punishment was just, yet they could not bear to hear of it. It is the folly of sinners, that they persevere in sinful ways, though they dread the destruction at the end of those ways.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this parable explained in the notes at Matthew 21:33-45.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17-19. written—(in Ps 118:22, 23. See on [1709]Lu 19:38). The Kingdom of God is here a Temple, in the erection of which a certain stone, rejected as unsuitable by the spiritual builders, is, by the great Lord of the House, made the keystone of the whole. On that Stone the builders were now "falling" and being "broken" (Isa 8:15), "sustaining great spiritual hurt; but soon that Stone should fall upon them and grind them to powder" (Da 2:34, 35; Zec 12:3)—in their corporate capacity in the tremendous destruction of Jerusalem, but personally, as unbelievers, in a more awful sense still.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 20:9"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Whosoever shall fall on that stone, shall be broken,.... Not who shall fall upon Christ by faith, and build upon him as the foundation stone, for such shall be saved; but that stumble at him, and are offended with him, and fall by unbelief and hardness of heart; such do themselves much hurt and mischief and expose themselves to danger and ruin; they bid very fair for destruction:

but on whomsoever it shall fall; as it did with its full weight upon the Jews at their destruction, and as it will upon all Christless sinners at the last day:

it will grind him to powder; the ruin of such will be unavoidable, and there will be no recovery; See Gill on Matthew 21:44.

Geneva Study Bible

Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 20:18 points out the bearing of the turn in the fortunes of the “Stone” on the fate of those who rejected Him. The thought is based on Daniel 2:35. It is not in Mk., and it is a doubtful reading in Mt. It may have been a comment on the oracle from the Psalter suggested to believing minds by the tragic fate of the Jews. They first stumbled on the stone, then the stone fell on them with crushing judicial effect.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. shall fall upon that stone] as the Jews did from the first, 1 Corinthians 1:23. See Isaiah 8:14-15.

shall be broken] Literally, “shall be sorely bruised.”

it shall fall] as it did on the finally impenitent Jews after Christ’s Ascension.

it will grind him to powder] Literally, “it shall winnow him” (Jeremiah 31:10), with obvious reference to the great Image which ‘the stone cut without hands’ smote and broke to pieces, so that its fragments became “like the chaff of the summer threshingfloor, and the wind carried them away,” Daniel 2:35.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 20:18. Ἐκεῖνον) that great stone, of which the prediction had been given long ago in the Psalm.

Luke 20:18

Vincent's Word Studies

Shall be broken (συνθλασθήσεται)

Rev., rightly, broken to pieces. See on Matthew 21:44.

Grind him to powder (λικμήσει)

See on Matthew 21:44