The meal in the house of the pharisee

St Luke Chapter XIV : Verses 1-6

Contents

• Luke xiv. Verses 1-6.  Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text & Latin text (Vulgate)
• Douay-Rheims 1582 text
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary

Luke xiv. Verses 1-6.

Jesus went into the house of one of the chief of the Pharisees...to eat bread.
J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

1 And it came to pass, when Jesus went into the house of one of the chief of the Pharisees, on the sabbath day, to eat bread, that they watched him.

Et factum est cum intraret Jesus in domum cujusdam principis pharisæorum sabbato manducare panem, et ipsi observabant eum.

2 And behold, there was a certain man before him that had the dropsy.

Et ecce homo quidam hydropicus erat ante illum.

3 And Jesus answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying: Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?

Et respondens Jesus dixit ad legisperitos et pharisæos, dicens : Si licet sabbato curare?

4 But they held their peace. But he taking him, healed him, and sent him away.

At illi tacuerunt. Ipse vero apprehensum sanavit eum, ac dimisit.

5 And answering them, he said: Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit, and will not immediately draw him out, on the sabbath day?

Et respondens ad illos dixit : Cujus vestrum asinus, aut bos in puteum cadet, et non continuo extrahet illum die sabbati?

6 And they could not answer him to these things.

Et non poterant ad hæc respondere illi.

Douay-Rheims : 1582 text

1. AND it came to paſſe when IESVS entred into the houſe of a certaine Prince of the Phariſees vpon the Sabboth to eate bread, and they watched him.

2. And behold there was a certaine man before him that had the dropſie.
3. And IESVS answering, spake to the Lawyers and Pharisees, saying: Is it Lawful to cure on the Sabboth?
4. But they held their peace. But he taking him, healed him, and ſent him away.
5. And anſwering them he ſaid: Which of you ſhal haue an aſſe or an oxe fallen into a pit; and wil not incontinent draw him out on the Sabboth day?

6. And they could not anſwer him to theſe things.

 

Annotations

    1.  And it came to pass, when Jesus went into the house of one of the chief of the Pharisees, on the sabbath day, to eat bread, that they watched him. “To do them service,” says Titus, “Christ makes Himself their friend, and, as it were, one of their household,” for “although He knew the malice of the Pharisees, yet He became their guest that He might benefit by His words and miracles those who were present, and teach them the lawfulness of healing on the Sabbath, and the respective duties of entertainers and guests.”

    2. And behold, there was a certain man before him that had the dropsy. This man seems to have been a friend of the Pharisee, who perhaps had invited Jesus in order that He might heal him. Certainly, as S. Cyril and Euthymius say, the sufferer presented himself of his own accord to Jesus, silently pleading that he might be restored to health. But the Pharisees sought His presence for another purpose, in order that they might see whether Christ would heal him on the Sabbath day, and thus show that He was not in truth a prophet sent by that God who had sanctified the rigid observance of the seventh day.

    [dropsy. An old term for the swelling of soft tissues due to the accumulation of excess water.]

    3. And Jesus answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying: Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? Answering their thoughts and not their inquiry, for they had asked no question, but thought in their hearts that Christ would be acting unlawfully if He healed on the Sabbath day.

    4. But they held their peace. But he taking him, healed him, and sent him away. He heals by His touch the dropsical man who, from fear of the Pharisees, did not ask to be healed on account of the Sabbath, but only stood up, that when Jesus beheld him He might have compassion on him and heal him. S. Cyril.

    Mystically. S. Gregory (lib. xiv. Moral.) observes: “The sick of the dropsy is healed in the Pharisee’s presence, for by the bodily infirmity of the one is expressed the mental disease, i.e. the avarice and covetousness, of the other.” “For,” says Bede, “the dropsical man represents one who is weighed down by an overflowing stream of carnal pleasures.” S. Augustine adds, “We lightly compare one sick of the dropsy to a covetous rich man, who, the more he abounds in riches, the more ardently desires them. Avarice and covetousness, then, are very similar to the dropsy, and as this dire disease is best remedied by abstaining from drinking, so the remedy for unlawful desire is mortification, abstinence, and continence, all of which wither and drive out virtuous habits.”

    5. And answering them, he said: Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit, and will not immediately draw him out, on the sabbath day? “If,’ says Bede, “ye hasten on the Sabbath to pull an ox or an ass out of the pit into which he has fallen, consulting not the good of the animal, but your own avarice, how much more ought I to deliver a man who is much better than a beast?” He adds also, “they were not to violate the Sabbath by a work of coveteousness, who were arguing that He did so by a work of charity.” And again, in a mystical sense, the ox and the ass represent the wise and the foolish, or the Jew oppressed by the burden of the Law and the Gentile not subject to reason. For the Lord rescues from the pit of concupiscence all who are sunk therein.”

    S. Augustine also (Lib. ii. Quæst. Evang.) says, “He has aptly compared the dropsical man to an animal which has fallen into a ditch (for he is troubled by water), as He compared that woman whom He loosed, to a beast which is let loose to be led to water.”

    6. And they could not answer him to these things. Because they were convinced by the truth of His reasoning. Yet privately they murmured amongst themselves, and afterwards openly clamoured amongst the people. “This man is not of God, who keepeth not the sabbath.,” S. John ix. 16. Although Jesus knew this, He healed the man, and permitted their malice and obstinacy to gather force, so that the cross ordained for Him by God might be prepared for the salvation of men. “Caring nought,” says Theophylact, “for the offence given to the Pharisees.” For when a great good is the result, we must not care if the foolish are offended.

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.