Luke 16:16
Until John, and since then
- The gospel’s word εὐαγγελίζομαι euangelizomai · to speak good news
Original
Translations
The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the gospel of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.
The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.
the Law and the Prophets [are] until John; since then the good news of the Kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone presses into it;
율법과 선지자는 요한의 때까지요 그 후부터는 하나님 나라의 복음이 전파되어 사람마다 그리로 침입하느니라
율법과 대언자들은 요한까지요, 그때 이후로는 하나님의 왕국이 선포되어 사람마다 그리로 밀고 들어가느니라.
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on Luke 16:13-18 as a whole
To this parable our Lord added a solemn warning. Ye cannot serve God and the world, so divided are the two interests. When our Lord spoke thus, the covetous Pharisees treated his instructions with contempt. …
Read the whole commentary →Church Fathers Luke 16:16
Ambrose: Not that the Law failed, but that the preaching of the Gospel began, for that which is inferior seems to be completed when a better succeeds. Chrysostom: He hereby disposes them readily to believe on Him, because if as far as John’s time all things were complete, I am…
Read the whole commentary →Wesley Luke 16:16
The law and the prophets were in force until John: from that time the Gospel takes place; and humble upright men receive it with inexpressible earnestness. Mt 11:13.
Read the whole commentary →
Note
In one sentence Jesus divides history in two. The Law and the Prophets run until John; since then the kingdom of God is announced as good news. And the very next sentence says that not one stroke of the Law will drop out.
The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the gospel of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.
Luke 16:16Jesus had told the parable of the dishonest manager and ended it, "You cannot serve both God and money" (Luke 16:13). The Pharisees, "who were lovers of money," heard it and scoffed (Luke 16:14), and Jesus answered that they justified themselves before men while God knew their hearts. This verse stands in the middle of that answer. Then come the saying that the Law will not fail (Luke 16:17), a word on divorce, and the story of the rich man and Lazarus, in which Abraham says of the rich man's brothers, "They have Moses and the Prophets; let your brothers listen to them" (Luke 16:29). The Law and the Prophets that ran "until John" still bear witness after him.
The verb is a present passive here, euangelizetai, third person singular, with "the kingdom of God" as its subject: the kingdom is being announced as good news. The dividing line is John, and "since that time" (apo tote) marks where one age ends and another begins. The second verb, biazetai (), has a form that can be middle or passive, and readers have taken it both ways. As a middle it says that everyone is forcing his way in, pressing eagerly toward the kingdom. As a passive it can say that everyone is being urged, even pressed, to come in, as the master in the parable of the banquet tells his servant to "compel them to come in" (Luke 14:23). Matthew's saying on the same theme uses different words (Matthew 11:12–13).
The KJV has "since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it": the kingdom itself is what is preached, and the word "good" goes unsaid. The BSB brings out the good news with "the gospel of the kingdom of God is being preached," the LSV with "the good news of the Kingdom of God is proclaimed." All three take the second verb as a middle: "presseth," "is forcing his way," "presses." The BSB's "were proclaimed" in the first clause supplies a verb the Greek leaves out; the KJV and the LSV supply "were" and "are."
In the Catena Ambrose puts the saying in one line: "Not that the Law failed, but that the preaching of the Gospel began" Ambrose. Bede reads it with the next verse: the Law and the Prophets were until John not because the Law was destroyed, but because what they had always foretold as coming had, by John's preaching, plainly come Bede. Eusebius reads the pressing as the effort of self-mastery: "A great struggle befalls men in their ascent to heaven" Eusebius. John Wesley says that from John's time "the Gospel takes place; and humble upright men receive it with inexpressible earnestness" Wesley.
Whoever hears the good news of the kingdom today hears it on this side of John's line, in the time when the way in stands open to everyone.