Luke 24:17

And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(17) What manner of communications . . .?—Literally, What are these words that ye bandy to and fro with one another?

And are sad.—The adjective is the same as that used of the hypocrites in Matthew 6:16. The better MSS. make the question stop at “as ye walk,” and then add, “And they stood sad in countenance.” Over and above the authority for this reading, it has unquestionably the merit of greater dramatic vividness.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:13-27 This appearance of Jesus to the two disciples going to Emmaus, happened the same day that he rose from the dead. It well becomes the disciples of Christ to talk together of his death and resurrection; thus they may improve one another's knowledge, refresh one another's memory, and stir up each other's devout affections. And where but two together are well employed in work of that kind, he will come to them, and make a third. Those who seek Christ, shall find him: he will manifest himself to those that inquire after him; and give knowledge to those who use the helps for knowledge which they have. No matter how it was, but so it was, they did not know him; he so ordering it, that they might the more freely discourse with him. Christ's disciples are often sad and sorrowful, even when they have reason to rejoice; but through the weakness of their faith, they cannot take the comfort offered to them. Though Christ is entered into his state of exaltation, yet he notices the sorrows of his disciples, and is afflicted in their afflictions. Those are strangers in Jerusalem, that know not of the death and sufferings of Jesus. Those who have the knowledge of Christ crucified, should seek to spread that knowledge. Our Lord Jesus reproved them for the weakness of their faith in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Did we know more of the Divine counsels as far as they are made known in the Scriptures, we should not be subject to the perplexities we often entangle ourselves in. He shows them that the sufferings of Christ were really the appointed way to his glory; but the cross of Christ was that to which they could not reconcile themselves. Beginning at Moses, the first inspired writer of the Old Testament, Jesus expounded to them the things concerning himself. There are many passages throughout all the Scriptures concerning Christ, which it is of great advantage to put together. We cannot go far in any part, but we meet with something that has reference to Christ, some prophecy, some promise, some prayer, some type or other. A golden thread of gospel grace runs through the whole web of the Old Testament. Christ is the best expositor of Scripture; and even after his resurrection, he led people to know the mystery concerning himself, not by advancing new notions, but by showing how the Scripture was fulfilled, and turning them to the earnest study of it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

What manner of communications ... - What is the subject of your conversation? What is it that has so much affected your minds? They were deeply affected in the recollection of the death of Jesus; and, as became all Christians, they were conversing about him, and were sad at the overwhelming events that had come upon them.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17-24. communications, &c.—The words imply the earnest discussion that had appeared in their manner.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Not that he, from whom the secrets of no hearts are hidden, did not know what they were discoursing about, but that he had a mind to hear them repeated from them, that from their repetition of them he might take the better advantage to instruct them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he said unto them,.... That is, "Jesus", as the Persic version, or "our Lord", as the Ethiopic version, expresses it:

what manner of communications are these, that ye have one to another, as ye walk? what is the subject of your discourse; what is it your conversation one with another turns upon in your journey?

and are sad? what melancholy story are you telling to one another, which causes such sadness of countenance, and dejection of mind? for Christ by their countenances and gestures, as the shaking of their heads, and lifting up and wringing of their hands, could easily discern as man, as well as know as God, that they were full of sorrow and heaviness, and which were occasioned and increased by what they were talking of.

Geneva Study Bible

And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Luke 24:17-18. What are these discourses that ye in turn throw out to one another as ye walk, and are of gloomy countenance? Instead of καὶ ὄντες σκυθρωποί, the address passes over into the finite verb, bringing out this characteristic more emphatically, Matthiae, § 632; Kühner, § 675. 4. After καί we are not to supply τί (Beza). The relative clause οὓς ἀντιβάλλ. πρ. ἀλλ. corresponds to the idea of συζητεῖν (disputare).

σὺ μόνος παροικεῖς κ.τ.λ.] Dost thou alone dwell as a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not learned, etc.? In respect of this question of surprise, it is to be considered—(1) that the destiny of Jesus is so entirely the only thought in the soul of the two disciples, and appears to them now so absolutely as the only possible subject of their conversation and their sadness, that from their standpoint they instantly conclude from the question of the unknown one that he cannot at all know what has come to pass, since otherwise he would not begin by asking of what they speak and why they look sad; (2) that μόνος belongs to παροικεῖς and καὶ οὐκ ἔγνως; so that thus παροικεῖς Ἱερ. καὶ οὐκ ἔγνως (there is no comma to be placed before καί), taken together, constitute the ground of their question, whether it is he alone in whose experience this is the case. Hence it is wrong to take καί in the place of a relative. Comp. John 7:4παροικεῖν Ἱερουσ. may either mean: dwell as a stranger in Jerusalem (thus often in the LXX.; usually with ἐν, but also with the accusative, Genesis 17:8; Exodus 6:4), or: dwell near, at Jerusalem (Grotius, Rosenmüller, and, with hesitation, Bleek; comp. Xen. De redit. i. 5; Isocr. Panegyr. 162; Thuc. iii. 93; Lucian, D. M. ii. 1); thus Ἱερουσ. would be in the dative. The former view is the usual and the correct one (comp. Hebrews 11:9; Acts 7:6; Acts 13:17; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 Peter 2:11), since the disciples might recognise the unknown, perchance, as a foreign pilgrim to the feast (even from his dialect), but not as a dweller in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Ungrammatically (not to be supported by passages such as Genesis 24:37; Numbers 20:15; Psalm 15:1; Psalm 120:6, where the LXX. have translated ישב and שכן by terms more specific than the original), Theophylact, also Zeger and others, have taken παροικεῖν as simply to dwell; and Castalio, Vatablus, Clarius, and Kuinoel have taken it in the figurative sense of ξένον εἶναι and hospitem esse: “de iis, qui quid agatur ignorant, art thou then alone so strange to Jerusalem?”

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 24:17. ἀντιβάλλετε: an expressive word (here only in N.T.), confirming the impression of animated and even heated conversation made by συζητεῖν. It points to an exchange of words, not simply, but with a certain measure of excitement. As Pricaeus expresses it: “fervidius aliquanto et commotius, ut fieri amat ubi de rebus noves mirisque disserentes nullamque expediendi nos viam invenientes, altercamur”. The question of the stranger quietly put to the two wayfarers is not without a touch of kindly humour.—καὶ ἐστάθησαν, σκυθρωποί: this well-attested reading gives a good graphic sense = “they stood still, looking sad” (R. V[203]). A natural attitude during the first moments of surprise at the interruption of their talk by an unknown person, and in a puzzling tone.

[203] Revised Version.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

17. that ye have one to another] Literally, “cast to and fro.”

and are sad] The true reading seems to be and they stood still (estathesan, א, A, B, and some ancient versions; estesan, L), looking sad. They stopped short, displeased at the unwelcome, and possibly perilous, intrusion of a stranger into their conversation.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 24:17. Εἶπε, He said) It is the part of wisdom, to pass with ease into profitable conversation. John 4:7-8 [Jesus taking occasion from the well, and His request to the woman of Samaria for a drink, to pass to the subject of the living water]; Acts 8:30 [Philip and the Eunuch reading Isaiah].

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 17. - What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? The older authorities make the question stop at "as ye walk," and then add, "and they stood still, looking sad." This change is, of course, of no great importance, but it considerably adds to the vividness of the picture. Luke 24:17

Vincent's Word Studies

Ye have (ἀντιβάλλετε)

Lit., throw back and forth; exchange.

"Discussed a doubt and tossed it to and fro" (Tennyson).

And are sad (σκυθρωποί)

Only here and Matthew 6:16, on which see note. The best texts put the interrogation point after walk, add καὶ ἐστάθησαν, and render, and they stood still, looking sad. So Rev.