Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

Ten - lepers - Concerning the leprosy see the note on Matthew 8:2; and on Leviticus 13:1, etc. and Leviticus 14:1, etc.

Which stood afar off - They kept at a distance, because forbidden by law and custom to come near to those who were sound, for fear of infecting them. See Leviticus 13:46; Numbers 5:2; 2 Kings 15:5.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

There met him - They were in his way, or in his path, as he was entering the village. They were not allowed to enter the village while they were afflicted with the leprosy, Leviticus 13:46; Numbers 5:2-3.

Lepers - See the notes at Matthew 8:2.

Stood afar off - At a distance, as they were required by law. They were unclean, and it was not lawful for them to come near to those who were in health. As Jesus was traveling, they were also walking in the contrary way, and seeing him, and knowing that they were unclean, they stopped or turned aside, so that they might not expose others to the contagion.

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible

And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, who stood afar off.

Ten lepers ... The dreadful malady of leprosy was a terrible scourge of Mid-East cities in the times of Christ; and, for that matter, still is. The disease itself was considered a type of sin, not necessarily related to specific sins of the victims. Their standing afar off was required by the Old Testament law (Leviticus 13:45f).

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And as he entered into a certain village,.... Whether in Samaria or Galilee, is not certain; perhaps it bordered on both, since there were both Jews and Samaritans in it, as appears by what follows; and since Christ was passing between both places:

there met ten men that were lepers; who either were confined to this place, this village, for they might not be in the larger cities, and walled towns; See Gill on Matthew 8:2 or else having heard that Jesus of Nazareth was going to such a place, got together, and met him as he entered in it, in hope of being cured by him:

which stood afar off; from Christ, by reason of their uncleanness, as they were obliged to by the law, in Leviticus 13:46.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

stood afar off — (Compare Leviticus 13:45, Leviticus 13:46).

John Lightfoot's Commentary on the Gospels

12. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:

[Ten men that were lepers.] I. It is provided by a law, in Leviticus 13:46, that "he that is a leper shall dwell alone, and without the camp." How then came these ten to converse thus together? as also those four together, 2 Kings 7:3?

Other unclean persons must not live with him: i.e. those that are unclean by other kind of defilements: which also is intimated by the Gemarists in these words: "Shall those that have their issues, and those that are defiled by the dead, be sent out into one and the same place? The text saith, 'They shall not defile their camps,' Numbers 5:3; to assign one camp for these, and another for them."

The lepers might be conversant with lepers, and those that had issues with those that had issues; but those that were under different defilements might not converse promiscuously. Which confirms what I have conceived concerning the five porches at the pool of Bethesda; viz., that they were so framed and distinguished at first, that there might be a different reception for those that had contracted different kinds of defilements, and were there waiting to be cleansed in that pool.

That there were certain places where they that were unclean by that disease of the leprosy were secluded, reason might persuade us: for it were an inhuman thing to cast the leprous out of the city without any provision of a dwelling for them, but that they should always lie in the open air. Whether there was any such thing in this place, I will not determine. It seems as if these ten lepers, having heard of our Saviour's coming that way, were got but lately together to attend him there. For when the seventy disciples had beforehand openly proclaimed, in all the places where he was to come, that he would come thither, it is easy to conceive in what infinite throngs the sick, and all that were affected with any kind of distemper, would be crowding thither for a cure.

II. "The leper that transgresseth his bounds, let him receive forty stripes. Those that have their issues, men or women, if they transgress their limits, let them also receive forty stripes." Where the Gloss is, "The limits for those that have their issues are the Mountain of the House, or the Court of the Gentiles: for they are forbid to enter into the camp of the Levites. The unclean are not excluded but from the Court: excepting those that have their issues and a gonorrhea upon them; they are excluded even from the Mountain of the House; and the leper, who is excluded from the camp of Israel, that is, from the city."

Now the camp of Israel, out of which the leper was to be excluded, they interpreted to be every city that had been walled from the days of Joshua: "For (say they) Joshua sanctified the walled cities with the holiness that was ascribed to the camp of Israel; but he did not so to the rest of the land, nor the cities that had no walls." This was a village, and not such a city, where these ten lepers meet our Saviour; and if they were within this village, it was neither beyond the custom nor the rule, provided that they kept but their distance.

"A leper enters into the synagogue: they make him some grates, or bounds, ten hands high and four cubits broad: he enters the first, and goes out the last." The Gloss is, "Lest they should be defiled that stand in the synagogue," &c.

Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament

Which stood afar off (οι ανεστησαν πορρωτεν — hoi anestēsan porrōthen). The margin of Westcott and Hort reads simply εστησαν — estēsan The compound read by B means “rose up,” but they stood at a distance (Leviticus 13:45.). The first healing of a leper (Luke 5:12-16) like this is given by Luke only.

Vincent's Word Studies

Lepers

See on Luke 5:12.

The Fourfold Gospel

1. There met him ten men that were lepers, who stood afar off. One may still meet such groups of lepers outside the villages. They do not stand directly in the road so as to make an actual meeting, but are off to one side and near enough to beg. The law required lepers to keep away from the rest of the people (Leviticus 13:45,46). The rabbis are said to have prescribed a fixed distance at which lepers must keep, but authority varies as to this distance, some giving it as a rod (sixteen and a half feet, or five meters), and others as high as a hundred paces (five hundred feet).

Abbott's Illustrated New Testament

Stood afar off. Lepers were required to avoid communication with others on account of the contagiousness of their disease.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:

Ver. 12. Stood afar off] For so they were charged, Leviticus 13:45-46, as also to cover their lips, for fear of infecting others.

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible

Luke 17:12. There met him ten men— As lepers were banished from the towns, they were likewise obligated to keep at a distance from the roads which led to them. Curiosity, however, to see the travellers who passed, or an inclination to beg, or perhaps a pre-concerted plan to find out Jesus, having brought these ten as nigh to the public road as they could, they espied our Lord, and cried to him, beseeching him to take pity on them, and cure them. It seems they knew him personally, having seen him before, or guessed that it might be he from the crowds which followed him. If it be asked how so many lepers came together, the answer is, that being secluded from the society of other men on account of their disease, they sought the comforts of society in the company of each other.

Greek Testament Critical Exegetical Commentary

12. πόῤῥωθεν] See Leviticus 13:46; Numbers 5:2. The Rabbinical prescriptions as to the distance are given in Wetstein.

Their misery had broken down the national distinction, and united them in one company.

On the nature of leprosy and its significance, see on Matthew 8:2.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

See Poole on "Luke 17:11"

Alexander MacLaren's Expositions of Holy Scripture

прокаженных Эти люди были по закону нечистыми и вынуждены были жить за пределами селения (Лев. 13:46; Чис. 5:2, 3). Они не имели права приближаться к здоровым людям на установленное законом расстояние, поэтому они общались с Христом, выкрикивая свою просьбу. Для описания проказы см. пояснение к Лев. 13:2.

Justin Edwards' Family Bible New Testament

Men that were lepers, which stood afar off; lepers were not allowed to dwell with or come near to persons in health. Leviticus 13:46; Numbers 5:2-3; Matthew 8:2-4.

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

‘And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men who were skin diseased, who stood afar off,’

Approaching a certain village (Luke’s source may not have known its name) Jesus came across ten men who ‘stood afar off’. They were skin diseased and therefore unclean and were thus forbidden to join themselves with crowds. They were outcasts from Israel, ever on the periphery of things. They did not have the forthrightness of the skin diseased man in Luke 5:12-15 who actually approached Jesus. On the other hand they were in fact were being more obedient to the Law. The men would, however, want to maintain their proximity to villages in order to receive alms from them. They had no other honest means of survival.

But Luke may well have intended a hint here that God’s mercy was available to those who are ‘afar off’ (compare Ephesians 2:13).

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

12.As he entered—In the outskirts of some village, to us unknown, in his progress to the frontier line.

Ten lepers—As is the custom in the East, this dismal society hovered near the village which they might not enter.

Numbers 5:4; Matthew 8:1. Sad emblem of those who behold the blessedness of that heavenly kingdom from which they are forever excluded.

Stood afar off—As the law required them to maintain a distance.

Schaff's Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Luke 17:12. As he entered. The incident probably occurred outside the village.

Ten lepers. Misery had united them, although they were of different races; comp. a similar company, 2 Kings 9:3.

Who stood afar off. Because of their un-cleanness. See on Matthew 8:2; and comp. the Levitical requirements: Leviticus 13:46; Numbers 5:2.

The Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 17:12_{. : ten, a large number, the disease common. Rosenmüller (das A. and N. Morgenland) cites from Dampier a similar experience; lepers begging alms from voyagers on the river Camboga, when they approached their village, crying to them from afar. They could not heal them, but they gave them a little rice.}

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

entered = was about to enter.

ten. Compare 2 Kings 7:3, and note on Exodus 4:6.

men. Greek. Plural of aner. App-123.

afar off. As required by Leviticus 13:45, Leviticus 13:46. The Talmudical law prescribed 100 paces.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:

And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off.

See the affecting directions laid down for such in Leviticus 13:45-46. That there should be so many as ten in one locality shows how numerous they, as well as possessed persons, must have been in Palestine in our Lord's time-no doubt with a view to the manifestation of His glory in healing them.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) Ten men that were lepers.—On the general character of leprosy, see Notes on Matthew 8:2. As only one of these was a Samaritan, it seems probable that the unnamed village was, as has been said, on the border-land of the two provinces. It is, perhaps, significant that our Lord takes neither of the usual caravan roads—one of which passed through Samaria, the other through Peræa—but chooses one for Himself that led through the one district into the other. The herding together of those who were shut out from all other fellowship has its parallel in the four lepers of 2 Kings 7:3.

Which stood afar off.—In this case, then, there was no running and falling at the feet of Jesus, as in the earlier case of healing. They kept, it would seem probable, to the legal limit of one hundred paces.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

which

5:12; 18:13; Leviticus 13:45,46; Numbers 5:2,3; 12:14; 2 Kings 5:27; 7:3; 2 Chronicles 26:20,21