Luke 6:18
“The Sermon on the Plain Begins”Luke 6:17–19
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain
Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain
Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain
Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain
Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain
- καὶkaiAndG2532CONJConjunction
- οἱhoithoseG3588T-NPMDefinite article Nominative Plural Masculine
- ἐνοχλούμενοιenochloumenoibeing troubledG1776V-PPP-NPMVerb Present Passive Participle Nominative Plural Masculine
- ἀπὸapowithG575PREPPreposition
- πνευμάτωνpneumatōnspiritsG4151N-GPNNoun Genitive Plural Neuter
- ἀκαθάρτωνakathartōnuncleanG169A-GPNAdjective Genitive Plural Neuter
- καὶkaiandG2532CONJConjunction
- ἐθεραπεύοντοetherapeuontowere healedG2323V-IPI-3PVerb Imperfect Passive Indicative 3rd Plural
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Greek, not the KJV's wording. Why?
This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Greek word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Greek word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “charity” where the gloss reads “love”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.
Words in [ ] are added by the English.
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Public-domain commentary
Matthew Henry
From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Luke 6:12–19. He set out his notes in a two-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.
In these verses, we have our Lord Jesus in secret, in his family, and in public; and in all three acting like himself.
I.In secret we have him praying to God, Luke 6:12.
This evangelist takes frequent notice of Christ's retirements, to give us an example of secret prayer, by which we must keep up our communion with God daily, and without which it is impossible that the soul should prosper. In those days, when his enemies were filled with madness against him, and were contriving what to do to him, he went out to pray; that he might answer the type of David (Psalm 109:4), For my love, they are my adversaries; but I give myself unto prayer. Observe,
1.He was alone with God; he went out into a mountain, to pray, where he might have no disturbance or interruption given him; we are never less alone than when we are thus alone. Whether there was any convenient place built upon this mountain, for devout people to retire to for their private devotions, as some think, and that that oratory, or place of prayer, is meant here by hē proseuchē tou theou, to me seems very uncertain. He went into a mountain for privacy, and therefore, probably, would not go to a place frequented by others.
2.He was long alone with God: He continued all night in prayer. We think one half hour a great deal to spend in the duties of the closet; but Christ continued a whole night in meditation and secret prayer. We have a great deal of business at the throne of grace, and we should take a great delight in communion with God, and by both these we may be kept sometimes long at prayer.
II.In his family we have him nominating his immediate attendants, that should be the constant auditors of his doctrine and eye-witnesses of his miracles, that hereafter they might be sent forth as apostles, his messengers to the world, to preach his gospel to it, and plant his church in it, Luke 6:13. After he had continued all night in prayer, one would have thought that, when it was day, he should have reposed himself, and got some sleep. No, as soon as any body was stirring, he called unto him his disciples. In serving God, our great care should be, not to lose time, but to make the end of one good duty the beginning of another. Ministers are to be ordained with prayer more than ordinarily solemn. The number of the apostles was twelve. Their names are here recorded; it is the third time that we have met with them, and in each of the three places the order of them differs, to teach both ministers and Christians not to be nice in precedency, not in giving it, much less in taking it, but to look upon it as a thing not worth taking notice of; let it be as it lights. He that in Mark was called Thaddeus, in Matthew Lebbeus, whose surname was Thaddeus, is here called Judas the brother of James, the same that wrote the epistle of Jude. Simon, who in Matthew and Mark was called the Canaanite, is here called Simon Zelotes, perhaps for his great zeal in religion. Concerning these twelve here named we have reason to say, as the queen of Sheba did of Solomon's servants, Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, that stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom; never were men so privileged, and yet one of them had a devil, and proved a traitor (Luke 6:16); yet Christ, when he chose him, was not deceived in him.
III.In public we have him preaching and healing, the two great works between which he divided his time, Luke 6:17.
He came down with the twelve from the mountain, and stood in the plain, ready to receive those that resorted to him; and there were presently gathered about him, not only the company of his disciples, who used to attend him, but also a great multitude of people, a mixed multitude out of all Judea and Jerusalem. Though it was some scores of miles from Jerusalem to that part of Galilee where Christ now was, - though at Jerusalem they had abundance of famous rabbin, that had great names, and bore a mighty sway, - yet they came to hear Christ. They came also from the sea-coast of Tyre and Sidon. Though they who lived there were generally men of business, and though they bordered upon Canaanites, yet there were some well affected to Christ; such there were dispersed in all parts, here and there one.
1.They came to hear him and he preached to them. Those that have not good preaching near them had better travel far for it than be without it. It is worth while to go a great way to hear the word of Christ, and to go out of the way of other business for it.
2.They came to be cured by him, and he healed them. Some were troubled in body, and some in mind; some had diseases, some had devils; but both the one and the other, upon their application to Christ, were healed, for he has power over diseases and devils (Luke 6:17, Luke 6:18), over the effects and over the causes. Nay, it should seem, those who had no particular diseases to complain of yet found it a great confirmation and renovation to their bodily health and vigour to partake of the virtue that went out of him; for (Luke 6:19) the whole multitude sought to touch him, those that were in health as well as those that were sick, and they were all, one way or other, the better for him: he healed them all; and who is there that doth not need, upon some account or other, to be healed? There is a fulness of grace in Christ, and healing virtue in him, and ready to go out from him, that is enough for all, enough for each.
Historical interpretation
Seven Centuries of Reception
6 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.
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But observe all things carefully, how He both ascends with His Apostles and descends to the multitude; for how could the multitude see Christ but in a lowly place. It follows him not to the lofty places, it ascends not the heights. Lastly, when He descends, He finds the sick, for in the high places there can be no sick.
Note all things carefully. He ascends with the apostles and descends to the crowds. How would a crowd see Christ, except at a low level? It does not follow him to the heights; it does not climb to majestic places. So when he descends, he finds the weak, for the weak cannot be high up. Thus also Matthew teaches that the weak were healed down below. First each was healed, so that little by little, with increasing virtue, he could ascend to the mountain. On the plain he heals each, that is, he calls them back from recklessness. He turns away the harm of blindness. He descends to heal our wounds, so that in an effective and abundant manner he makes us partakers in his heavenly nature.
When the ordination of the Apostles was accomplished, and great numbers were collected together from the country of Judæa, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, (who were idolaters,) he gave the Apostles their commission to be the teachers of the whole world, that they might recal the Jews from the bondage of the law, but the worshippers of devils from their Gentile errors to the knowledge of the truth. Hence it is said, And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and a great multitude from Judæa, and the sea coast, &c.
But after that the High Priest had made publicly known His choice of Apostles, He did many and great miracles, that the Jews and Gentiles who had assembled might know that these were invested by Christ with the dignity of the Apostleship, and that He Himself was not as another man, but rather was God, as being the Incarnate Word. Hence it follows, And the whole multitude sought to touch him, for there went virtue out of him. For Christ did not receive virtue from others, but since he was by nature God, sending out His own virtue upon the sick, He healed them all.
When he had appointed the holy apostles, he performed very many wonderful miracles, rebuking demons, delivering from incurable diseases whoever drew near to him, and displaying his own most divine power. He did these works so that both the Jews, who had run together to him, and those from the country of the Greeks might know that Christ was not some ordinary man of those in our degree but, on the contrary, God. He honored these chosen disciples with the dignity of the apostolate. He was the Word that was made man but retained nevertheless his own glory. "For power went forth from him and healed all." Christ did not borrow strength from some other person, but being himself God by nature, even though he had become flesh, he healed them all, by the demonstration of power over the sick.
By the sea coast he does not refer to the neighbouring sea of Galilee, because this would not be accounted wonderful, but it is so called from the great sea, and therein also Tyre and Sidon may be comprehended, of which it follows, Both of Tyre and Sidon. And these states being Gentile, are purposely named here, to indicate how great was the fame and power of the Saviour which had brought even the citizens of the coast to receive His healing and teaching. Hence it follows, Which came to hear him.
You will scarcely find any where that the multitudes follow our Lord to the higher places, or that a sick person is healed on a mountain; but having quenched the fever of lust and lit the torch of knowledge, each man approaches by degrees to the height of the virtues. But the multitudes which were able to touch the Lord are healed by the virtue of that touch, as formerly the leper is cleansed when our Lord touched him. The touch of the Saviour then is the work of salvation, whom to touch is to believe on Him, to be touched is to be healed by His precious gifts.
That is, for the cure of their souls; and that they might be healed of their diseases, that is, for the cure of their bodies.
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This verse
People tormented by unclean spirits come to Jesus among the crowd, and one after another they are healed.
“And they that were vexed with unclean spirits:”
A further group within the crowd. Ochléō means mobbed, harassed, afflicted, and akáthartos means unclean or impure.
“and they were healed.”
Therapeúō, to relieve of disease, to cure. The Greek form describes healing that kept happening as people kept coming.
Passage studyLuke 6:17–19
Jesus Comes Down and Heals Them All
Summary
Jesus has spent the night in prayer on a mountain and has chosen his twelve apostles. Now he comes down with them to a level place, where his disciples and a great crowd are waiting. They have come from Judaea and Jerusalem and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, to hear him and to be healed. Those troubled by unclean spirits are healed, the whole crowd reaches out to touch him, and power goes out of him and heals them all. These three verses set the scene for the Sermon on the Plain, and they show us a Saviour who comes down to where people are and has power enough for every need brought to him.
Why Jesus came down to the plain
The verses just before this tell how Jesus went up a mountain, prayed all night, and chose the twelve (Luke 6:12–16). In Scripture a mountain is often a place of meeting with God. Moses went up Sinai to God (Exodus 19:3), and Jesus was transfigured on a high mountain (Matthew 17:1). The verb for “came down”, katabaínō, simply means to descend, and here it marks a deliberate move from that private place of prayer to a place where anyone could reach him.
“The plain” is a level place. The Greek word pedinós means level or flat, and it comes from a word for the ground or the foot. Joined with tópos, “place”, it gives the sense “a level place”. Open, flat ground had room for a very large gathering, and people in that day would travel a long way to hear a prophet or find a healer. Jesus stood there, ready to minister and to teach, and the sermon that follows (Luke 6:20–49) is called the Sermon on the Plain because of this setting.
This small descent fits the far greater one. Jesus said, “I came down from heaven” (John 6:38). The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), and he took upon him the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7). The Lord who came down the mountain to stand among the sick is the Son of God who came down to us.
Who came, and from where
Two groups are waiting. “The company of his disciples” is the wider body of followers beyond the twelve, people who went about with Jesus and heard his teaching. Beside them is “a great multitude of people”. The word for multitude, óchlos, means a crowd, a large throng of ordinary people.
Luke names where they came from. Judaea and Jerusalem were the heartland of Jewish life. Tyre and Sidon were Phoenician cities on the Mediterranean coast to the northwest, and they were largely Gentile. Many devout Jews of the time kept a sharp distance from Gentile country, so the list tells us how far the news of Jesus had already gone. It also points ahead. Repentance and remission of sins were to be preached in his name among all nations (Luke 24:47), and Christ has broken down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 2:14). God so loved the world that whosoever believes in his Son should have everlasting life (John 3:16), and Jesus came that people might have life, and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).
They came to hear him and to be healed
The crowd came for two things, and Jesus gave both. They came “to hear him” because he taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes (Matthew 7:29). They came “to be healed of their diseases” because sickness was everywhere and cures were few. The verb here is iáomai, to cure or make whole, and the word for diseases is nósos, bodily sickness.
Teaching and healing go together all through his ministry. Matthew sums up his work in Galilee as teaching, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of sickness (Matthew 4:23). Isaiah had foretold one anointed to preach good tidings and to bind up the brokenhearted (Isaiah 61:1). When John the Baptist’s disciples came with their question, Jesus answered with the same pairing: “the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matthew 11:5). Jesus cares for the whole person, soul and body.
Those who were vexed with unclean spirits
Luke singles out one group within the crowd. “Vexed” translates ochléō, which means to be mobbed, and so to be harassed or afflicted. It is a strong word for people overwhelmed by a hostile power. “Unclean” is akáthartos, formed from the word for “cleansed” with a negative in front of it, so it means unclean or impure. The phrase “unclean spirits”, pneumaton akatharton, is the Gospels’ name for demons, evil spirits opposed to the holiness of God. Mark records an early meeting with one in the synagogue at Capernaum, where the people were amazed that Jesus commanded the unclean spirits and they obeyed him (Mark 1:23–27).
“And they were healed” uses a second Greek word for healing, therapeúō, which at root means to serve or wait upon, and then to relieve of disease, to cure. The form Luke uses, etherapeuonto, describes continuing action. As people kept coming, they kept being healed, one after another. The passive “were healed” leaves no doubt about who did it.
This was the purpose for which he came. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Jesus said that if he cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God had come, and he spoke of binding the strong man in order to spoil his house (Matthew 12:28–29). At the cross he triumphed over principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15), and the Father has delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son (Colossians 1:13). The freedom given to these sufferers on the plain is an early sign of that victory.
Is all sickness caused by unclean spirits?
Luke keeps the two apart. Verse 17 speaks of people who came to be healed of their diseases, and verse 18 adds those vexed with unclean spirits as a further group. Elsewhere Luke tells of Jesus healing a man full of leprosy (Luke 5:12–13) and Simon’s wife’s mother of a great fever (Luke 4:38–39), and neither account mentions a spirit. Suffering has various sources, and Jesus has authority over them all.
Why the whole multitude sought to touch him
“The whole multitude” joins pâs, “all” or “whole”, to óchlos, the crowd. “Sought” is zētéō, to seek, and it describes an earnest and determined effort. “To touch” is háptomai, to touch with real, firm contact. The picture is of a great crowd pressing toward Jesus, each one trying to lay a hand on him.
People of that time commonly believed that blessing could pass through contact with a holy person, and the Gospels show Jesus’ power reaching people through touch. The woman with the issue of blood came behind him and touched the border of his garment, and her bleeding stopped at once (Luke 8:44). The reaching hands on the plain were an act of faith, simple as it was. They believed that help was to be found in him, and they came to get it. God had promised long before, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). Isaiah had spoken of a day when the eyes of the blind would be opened and the lame man would leap as an hart (Isaiah 35:5–6), and that hope stood behind the crowd’s eagerness.
What “virtue” means here
“Virtue” in this verse is power. The Greek word is dýnamis, which means force or strength and, in the Gospels, miraculous power. Our words “dynamic” and “dynamite” come from the same root. In older English “virtue” could carry this sense, and the KJV uses it that way here. It does not mean moral goodness in this verse.
Luke gives the reason for the crowd’s reaching with the small word “for”, hóti, which means “that” or “because”. They sought to touch him because power “went out” of him. The verb is exérchomai, to go out or issue forth. The healing was a real power coming from Jesus himself. Mark uses the same word when the woman touches his garment, and Jesus knows in himself that virtue has gone out of him (Mark 5:30). Peter later summed up the whole ministry this way: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him” (Acts 10:38).
He healed them all
The verse ends with iáomai again, the verb of verse 17, together with pâs, “all”. The crowd came to be healed, and they were. Every person who came received what they came for, whatever the sickness and wherever they were from. His power did not run short, and his compassion reached each one.
How this healing points to the cross
Matthew describes an evening like this one, when Jesus cast out spirits with his word and healed all that were sick, and he says it fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy: “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:16–17, quoting Isaiah 53:4). The deepest fulfilment of that prophecy came at the cross, where Jesus bore our sins in his own body, “by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Peter is speaking there chiefly of healing from sin.
So the healings on the plain are signs. The power that went out of Jesus to mend bodies shows the greater power by which he reconciles sinners to a holy God and gives eternal life. The scene also looks forward to the day when he who sits on the throne says, “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).
Does Jesus still heal today?
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). His power and compassion are what they were on the plain. He gave his disciples power over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19), and he spoke of signs that would follow those who believe, including casting out devils and laying hands on the sick (Mark 16:17–18). God still heals, through medicine, through prayer, and by direct miracle, according to his sovereign will. Healing today does not always come in the way or at the time we ask, and the greatest healing he gives is forgiveness and eternal life, which he offers to everyone who believes.
The Saviour who comes down to us
This passage shows us who Jesus is before we hear a word of his sermon. He comes down from the mountain to stand on level ground with the sick, the tormented, and the stranger from Gentile country. He receives a crowd that came with mixed needs, some hungry for his word and some wanting only relief, and he gives both teaching and healing. Power goes out of him freely, and it is enough for all of them.
We bring him the same things they brought: a need to hear the truth and a need to be made whole. The crowd on the plain shows that he welcomes people from every background, and that nobody who came to him that day was sent away. If you come to him in prayer with what troubles you, you are coming to the same Lord, whose compassion has not changed and whose deepest gift is to bring us back to God.
Luke 6:17
“And he came down with them,”
“Them” are the twelve apostles he has just chosen on the mountain. Katabaínō means to descend, and the move is from private prayer to public ministry.
“and stood in the plain,”
A level place, pedinós with tópos, open ground with room for a large gathering. He stands ready to minister to the people.
“and the company of his disciples,”
The wider circle of followers beyond the twelve, who will hear the sermon as its first audience.
“and a great multitude of people”
Óchlos, a crowd. Luke stresses how many were drawn to him.
“out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon,”
From the Jewish heartland in the south and from the largely Gentile Phoenician coast to the northwest. His fame has crossed the usual boundaries.
“which came to hear him,”
They wanted his teaching, for he spoke with authority.
“and to be healed of their diseases;”
Iáomai, to cure or make whole, and nósos, sickness. The sentence runs on into verse 18.
Luke 6:18 This verse
“And they that were vexed with unclean spirits:”
A further group within the crowd. Ochléō means mobbed, harassed, afflicted, and akáthartos means unclean or impure.
“and they were healed.”
Therapeúō, to relieve of disease, to cure. The Greek form describes healing that kept happening as people kept coming.
Luke 6:19
“And the whole multitude sought to touch him:”
Pâs with óchlos, the entire crowd. Zētéō is earnest seeking, and háptomai is firm touch, the same act as the woman’s in Luke 8:44.
“for there went virtue out of him,”
Hóti, “because”, gives the reason for their reaching. “Virtue” is dýnamis, power, and exérchomai means it went out from him.
“and healed them all.”
Iáomai again, with pâs. Everyone who came was made whole.
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