Luke 4:43
To the other towns as well
- The gospel’s word εὐαγγελίζομαι euangelizomai · to speak good news
Original
Translations
But Jesus told them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, because that is why I was sent.”
And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.
and He said to them, “Also to the other cities it is necessary for Me to proclaim good news of the Kingdom of God, because for this I have been sent”;
예수께서 이르시되 내가 다른 동네에서도 하나님의 나라 복음을 전하여야 하리니 나는 이 일로 보내심을 입었노라 하시고
그분께서 그들에게 이르시되, 내가 반드시 다른 도시들에도 하나님의 왕국을 선포하여야 하리니 이런 까닭으로 내가 보내어졌노라, 하시고
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on Luke 4:31-44 as a whole
Christ's preaching much affected the people; and a working power went with it to the consciences of men. These miracles showed Christ to be a controller and conqueror of Satan, a healer of diseases. …
Read the whole commentary →Church Fathers Luke 4:43
Chrysostom: Observe also, that He might, by abiding in the same place, have drawn all men over to Himself. He did not however do so, giving us an example to go about and seek those who are perishing, as the shepherd his lost sheep, and as the physician the sick. …
Read the whole commentary →Wesley
Nothing on this verse itself.
Read the whole commentary →
Note
The people of Capernaum try to keep Jesus from leaving them. He answers with the reason He was sent. It is here that Luke first speaks of "the kingdom of God."
But Jesus told them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, because that is why I was sent.”
Luke 4:43Rejected at Nazareth, Jesus went down to Capernaum and taught on the Sabbath. In the synagogue He drove out an unclean spirit (Luke 4:33–35); in Simon's house He rebuked the fever of Simon's mother-in-law (Luke 4:38–39); at sunset, "laying His hands on each one, He healed them" (Luke 4:40). At daybreak He went out to a solitary place, and the crowds "came to Him and tried to keep Him from leaving" (Luke 4:42). Nazareth tried to drive Him out; Capernaum tried to hold Him fast. Neither could keep Him in one place. The next verse sums up what follows: He went on preaching in the synagogues (Luke 4:44), where the BSB, following many early manuscripts, reads "of Judea" and the KJV "of Galilee."
The verb is , an aorist middle infinitive, euangelisasthai, and its object is "the kingdom of God" (tēn basileian tou theou): the kingdom itself is the good news. means first a king's reign, not a territory. Earlier in the same chapter the devil had shown Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world" (Luke 4:5); now Jesus announces another kingdom. The sentence turns on , "it is necessary," Luke's word for what must happen because God wills it. The boy Jesus uses it in the temple, "I had to be in My Father's house" (Luke 2:49), and Jesus uses it again when He says the Son of Man must suffer (Luke 9:22). The last word, apestalēn, "I was sent," answers the reading at Nazareth: "He has sent Me" (Luke 4:18).
The KJV has "I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also," and the LSV "it is necessary for Me to proclaim good news of the Kingdom of God." There is no noun "gospel" in the Greek; the good news is inside the verb. The BSB and the LSV bring it out as "good news of the kingdom"; the KJV makes the kingdom the direct object of "preach," and so shows that the kingdom is itself the thing announced.
In the Catena a Greek expositor compares the Gospels. Where Mark has "to this I came," Luke writes "to this am I sent," showing the incarnation and the Father's decree; and where Mark simply says "To preach," Luke adds "the kingdom of God, which is Christ Himself" a Greek expositor. Chrysostom sees an example for us in Jesus' refusal to stay put: He went about seeking the perishing, "as the shepherd his lost sheep, and as the physician the sick" Chrysostom. Matthew Henry draws a lesson from the sending: "We were not sent into this world to live to ourselves only, but to glorify God, and to do good in our generation" Matthew Henry.
The people of Capernaum meant no harm in wanting to keep Him. But He left them for the other towns, and the road He took has run on to every place where this news is heard today. The kingdom of God was never news that one town could keep to itself.