Luke 7:22
Tell John what you have seen and heard
- The gospel’s word εὐαγγελίζομαι euangelizomai · to speak good news
Original
Translations
So He replied, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.
Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.
And Jesus answering said to them, “Having gone on, report to John what you saw and heard, that blind men see again, lame walk, lepers are cleansed, deaf hear, dead are raised, poor have good news proclaimed;
대답하여 가라사대 너희가 가서 보고 들은 것을 요한에게 고하되 소경이 보며 앉은뱅이가 걸으며 문둥이가 깨끗함을 받으며 귀머거리가 들으며 죽은 자가 살아나며 가난한 자에게 복음이 전파된다 하라
그때에 예수님께서 대답하여 그들에게 이르시되, 너희 길로 가서 너희가 보고 들은 것들을 요한에게 고하되 곧 눈먼 자들이 보며 다리 저는 자들이 걸으며 나병 환자들이 정결하게 되며 귀먹은 자들이 들으며 죽은 자들이 일으켜지며 가난한 자들에게 복음이 선포된다 하라.
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on Luke 7:19-35 as a whole
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…
Read the whole commentary →Church Fathers Luke 7:22
Cyril: … Hence He made not answer to the words, but to the intention of him who sent them; as it follows, And Jesus answering said, to them, Go your way, and tell John what things you have seen and, heard: as if He said, Go and tell John the things which you have heard indeed…
Read the whole commentary →Wesley Luke 7:22
To the poor the Gospel is preached - Which is the greatest mercy, and the greatest miracle of all.
Read the whole commentary →
Note
John the Baptist sends two of his disciples to ask, "Are You the One who was to come, or should we look for someone else?" (Luke 7:19). Jesus does not answer with a claim. He tells them to report what they have seen and heard, and the last thing on the list is the good news.
So He replied, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.
Luke 7:22Matthew gives the same answer (Matthew 11:5), but Luke adds a scene before it: "At that very hour Jesus healed many people of their diseases, afflictions, and evil spirits, and He gave sight to many who were blind" (Luke 7:21). The messengers go back with what they have watched. In Luke, too, most of the items on the list have already happened in the story: a leper has been made clean (Luke 5:12–13), and just before this, at Nain, a widow's dead son sat up on his bier (Luke 7:14–15). And the whole answer echoes the reading at Nazareth, where good news for the poor and sight for the blind already stood side by side (Luke 4:18).
The verb is a present passive here, euangelizontai, third person plural. In Greek the subject is ptōchoi, "the poor," so the sentence puts them where the news arrives. All six verbs in the list are present tense: these things are happening while John's messengers stand and watch. At Nazareth the same verb was an infinitive, naming a mission: anointed "to preach good news to the poor" (Luke 4:18). Here it is an indicative, stating a fact. For Luke the list is not a promise but a report.
The KJV has "to the poor the gospel is preached," and the BSB, turning the clause the same way, "the good news is preached to the poor." The LSV keeps the Greek order, "poor have good news proclaimed," and with it the point that the poor are the subject. The other items show the plainness of the Greek: "blind men see again, lame walk, lepers are cleansed, deaf hear, dead are raised," in the LSV, without articles, as a list of things anyone could check.
On Luke's version Wesley calls the last item "the greatest mercy, and the greatest miracle of all" Wesley. In the Catena Theophylact says, "what is not less than these, the poor have the Gospel preached to them" Theophylact, so "that there might be no difference between the rich and the poor" Theophylact. Ambrose looks beyond the signs to a greater witness still: "The full assurance of faith is the cross of the Lord, His death and burial" Ambrose, and so Jesus adds, "Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of Me" (Luke 7:23). Matthew Henry puts the miracles and the preaching in two kingdoms: "To his miracles in the kingdom of nature, Christ adds this in the kingdom of grace" Matthew Henry.
John heard this answer in prison. What he received was not a proof but news, and the news that the poor were hearing good news was itself the answer. Wherever the poor hear this news, that answer is still being given.