Luke 7:25

But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) They which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately.—The words are more vivid than those in St. Matthew (“they that wear soft clothing”), and bring out the idea of ostentatious display and extravagant excess of luxury, as well as effeminate self-indulgence. Such forms of selfishness were common among the house of Herod and their followers. So Josephus describes the “royal apparel” of Agrippa (Acts 12:21) as glittering with gold and silver tissues. The words must have gone home to some of the Herodians, and we may trace a touch of brutal vindictiveness in the “gorgeous” or “bright robe,” in which they arrayed the Prophet of Nazareth when they had Him in their power. (See Notes on Luke 23:11; Matthew 11:8.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:19-35 To his miracles in the kingdom of nature, Christ adds this in the kingdom of grace, To the poor the gospel is preached. It clearly pointed out the spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom, that the messenger he sent before him to prepare his way, did it by preaching repentance and reformation of heart and life. We have here the just blame of those who were not wrought upon by the ministry of John Baptist or of Jesus Christ himself. They made a jest of the methods God took to do them good. This is the ruin of multitudes; they are not serious in the concerns of their souls. Let us study to prove ourselves children of Wisdom, by attending the instructions of God's word, and adoring those mysteries and glad tidings which infidels and Pharisees deride and blaspheme.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this passage explained in Matthew 11:2-19.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Lu 7:18-35. The Baptist's Message the Reply, and Consequent Discourse.

(See on [1592]Mt 11:2-14.)

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 7:24"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But what went you out for to see?.... If not his air and action, what was it? was it his apparel and dress? was it to see

a man clothed in soft raiment? If this was the case, their labour was in vain, and they had their walk for nothing; for John was clothed with camels' hair, rough and undressed, and was girt with a leathern girdle; there was nothing in his person, mien, and garb, that was attractive:

they which are gorgeously, apparelled; or richly clothed, as John was not:

and live delicately; in the most elegant manner, and on the richest dainties, as John did not, his food being locusts and wild honey:

are in kings' courts; and not in a wilderness, where John; came preaching.

Geneva Study Bible

But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 7:25. ἰδοὺ οἱ: Lk. changes the expression here, substituting for οἱ τὰ μαλακὰ φοροῦντες (Mt.), οἱ ἐν ἱματισμῷ ἐνδόξῳ καὶ τρυφῇ ὑπάρχοντες = those living in (clothed with) splendid apparel and luxury.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. A man clothed in soft raiment?] A contrast to the camel’s hair mantle and leathern girdle of the Baptist; Matthew 3:4.

they which are gorgeously apparelled and live delicately] Rather, they who are in glorious apparel and luxury. The Herods were specially given both to ostentation in dress (Acts 13:21) and to luxury, Mark 6:21; Jos. B. J. 1. 20, § 2; Antt. xix. 8, § 2; 18, § 7.

in kings courts] Rather, in palaces. Such as the palaces of the Herods which they had seen at Tiberias, Caesarea Philippi, and Jerusalem. We might almost fancy an allusion to Manaen the Essene, who is said in the Talmud to have openly adopted gorgeous robes to shew his allegiance to Herod. To the Herodians generally, and to all whose Judaism was a mere matter of gain and court favour, might have been applied the sneering nickname of the Talmud ‘Proselytes of the royal table’ (Gere Shulchan Melachim. Kiddushin, f. 65. 2; Gratz, in. 308). John had been in palaces, but only to counsel and reprove. Our Lord on the only two occasions on which He entered palaces—on the last day of His life—was mocked by “bright apparel” (Luke 23:11), and a purple or scarlet robe (Matthew 27:28).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts. Was it, again, to see one of earth's so-called great ones - a favourite of the reigning monarch, a courtier of the magnificent Herod? John was no court favourite, no powerful or princely noble. Dean Plumptre thinks that here a reference is made to the fact that, in the early days of Herod the Great, a section of the scribes had attached themselves to his policy and party, and in doing so had laid aside the sombre raiment of their order, and had appeared in the gorgeous raiment worn by Herod's other courtiers. "We may trace," adds the dean, "with very little hesitation, a vindictive retaliation for these very words in the 'gorgeous robe' with which Herod arrayed him in mockery, when the tetrarch and Christ stood for one brief hour face to face with each other" (Luke 23:4). Luke 7:25

Vincent's Word Studies

Gorgeously apparelled (ἐν ἱματισμῷ ἐνδόξῳ)

Lit., in splendid clothing.

Live delicately (τρυφῇ ὑπάρχοντες)

Lit., are in luxury. On ὑπάρχοντες, are, see on James 2:15. On τρυφῇ, luxury, see on 2 Peter 2:13, the only other place where it occurs. Compare the kindred verb τρυφάω, to live in luxury, James 5:5.

Kings' courts (βασιλείοις)

Only here in New Testament. Often rendered palaces. Sometimes, in later Greek, applied to a capital or royal city, a royal treasury, and a royal diadem.