LUKE 13:31-33
95John Calvin Commentary on Matthew, Mark, Luke - Volume 2
Luke 13:31-33
31. The same day some of the Pharisees came, saying to him, Depart, and go hence: for Herod
intends to kill thee. 32. And he said to them, Go, tell that fox, Lo, I cast out devils, and I perform
cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I am completed. 28033. But yet I must walk today and
tomorrow, and the following day; for it is not a usual occurrence that a prophet perish anywhere
else than in Jerusalem. 281
It deserves our attention, that Christ gives the designation, daughter of Abraham, to one whose
body had been enslaved by Satan during eighteen years. She was so called, not only in reference
to her lineage, as all the Jews without exception gloried in this title, but because she was one of the
true and actual members of the Church. Here we perceive also what Paul tells us, that some are
delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord
Jesus,
(1 Corinthians 5:5 .)
And the length of time points out to us that, though the Lord does not immediately relieve our
distresses, yet we ought not to despair.
It is difficult to ascertain the precise time when this happened, farther than that Christ was at
that time residing in Galilee, as during the whole period of his public calling he remained longer
there than in any other place. Certain persons, wishing to be considered as his friends, advise him
that, if he wishes to be in safety, he should go beyond the boundaries of Herod’s jurisdiction. In
what manner those who gave that advice were affected towards him we have no means of knowing;
but I am strongly inclined to conjecture, that they attempted to drive him to some other place,
because they saw that the greater part of the people in that place were attached to Christ, so that
the Gospel was generally received. We must observe who those advisers were. Luke says that they
were some of the Pharisees Now we know that that sect was not so favorable to Christ as to make
it probable that those men were anxious about his life. What then? Their design was, to awaken in
him such fears as would drive him to some place of concealment; for they expected that, in a short
time, his authority would decline, and that his whole doctrine would vanish away. But we must
also direct our attention to the first originator and contriver of this scheme, Satan; for, as he
endeavored at that time to interrupt the progress of the Gospel, by terrifying the Son of God, so he
constantly invents and hatches up new grounds of alarm, to strike the ministers of Christ with
dismay, and to constrain them to turn aside.
- Go, tell that fox It is certain, that the person here spoken of is Herod Antipas. Though he
had throughout the character of a fox, and was as remarkable for servility as for cunning, I do not
think that the term, fox, is intended to refer generally to the cunning of his whole life, but rather to
the insidious methods by which he labored to undermine the doctrine of the Gospel, when he did
not venture to attack it openly. Christ tells him that, with all his craftiness, he will gain nothing by
his schemes. “Whatever artifices he may devise,” says Christ, “ today and tomorrow I will discharge
280 “Et au troisieme iour ie pren fin ;” — “and on the third day I conclude.”
281 “Car il n’advient point qu’aucun Prophete meure hors de Ierusalem ;” — “for it does not happen that any Prophet dies out
of Jerusalem.”
96John Calvin Commentary on Matthew, Mark, Luke - Volume 2
the office which God has enjoined upon me; and when I shall have reached the end of my course,
I shall then be offered in sacrifice.” That we may perceive more clearly the meaning of the words,
Christ acknowledges, in the former part of his message, that on the third day—that is, within a very
short time—he must die; and in this way shows, that he could not be deterred from his duty by any
fear of death, to which he advanced boldly, with fixed purpose of mind.
- It does not usually happen, etc. He next adds, that it is an idle bugbear, which is held out
by false and hypocritical advisers; because there is no danger of death anywhere else than at
Jerusalem. In this second clause he sharply attacks the Pharisees. “Is it you, who — I foresee —
will be my executioners, that advise me to beware of Herod? ” The reproof extends, indeed, much
farther; for he says, not only that preparations had been made for his own death in Jerusalem, but
that it might be said to have been, for a long period, a den of robbers, in which almost all the
prophets had been murdered. Many had, no doubt, been slain in other places, and particularly at
the time when that cruel fury, 282 Jezebel, ( 1 Kings 19:2 ,) raged against them; but because in no
other place had the prophets, at any time, been fiercely tormented, Christ justly brings this reproach
against the ungodly inhabitants of the holy city.
It usually happened that the prophets were slain there; because not only was it the source of all
the ungodliness which spread over the whole of Judea, but it was also the field on which God trained
his prophets.283 We know that the more brightly the light of doctrine shines, so as to press more
closely on wicked men, they are driven to a greater pitch of madness. What a dreadful example
was it, that a place which had been chosen to be the sanctuary of divine worship, and the residence
of the Law and of heavenly wisdom, should be polluted not by one or another murder,, but by a
regular butchery of the prophets ! It undoubtedly shows how obstinate is the rebellion of the world
in rejecting sound doctrine.
The exclamation which immediately follows in Luke, ( 13:34 ,) appears to be connected in such
a manner, as if Christ had taken occasion from the present occurrence to inveigh, at this time,
against Jerusalem But for my own part, I rather think, that Luke, having said that Jerusalem had
been formerly stained by the blood of the prophets, nay, had been, through an uninterrupted
succession of many ages, the slaughter-place, where the prophets were cruelly and wickedly put
to death, immediately inserts, according to his custom, a statement which harmonized with that
discourse. We have seen, on former occasions, that it is by no means unusual with him to introduce
into one place a collection of Christ’s sayings, which were uttered at various times.
