Luke 24:48
in Luke 24You are witnesses of these things.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Ye are witnesses of these things.
KJV
And ye are witnesses of these things.
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This verse in Luke 24
Commentary
9 notes on this verseBut if those things which Christ foretold are already receiving their accomplishment, and His word is perceived by a seeing faith to be living and effectual throughout the whole world; it is time for men not to be unbelieving towards Him who uttered that word. For it is necessary that He should live a divine life, whose living works are shown to be agreeable to His words; and these indeed have been fulfilled by the ministry of the Apostles. Hence He adds, But ye are witnesses of these things, &c. that is, of My death and resurrection.
This site's exposition
repentance and remission of sins
on Luke 24:47-48
And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, and ye are witnesses of these things, Jesus commissions the eleven and those with them, the message and its starting point both drawn out of the scriptures he had just opened. Beginning at Jerusalem sets the very geography Acts will trace, the gospel moving outward from the city of the crucifixion to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth exactly as Acts 1:8 restates it, making this verse the hinge between Luke's two volumes. Ye are witnesses names the apostolic office in its simplest terms, men testifying to what they had seen and heard, not inventing a new system but reporting an event.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
That is, the sufferings and the resurrection.
But you are witnesses of these things. After the described revelation of the resurrection and the appearance of the risen one and the certainty of the appearance, here fourthly is treated the divulgation of the already known truth. And because this divulgation was made through …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
And ye are witnesses of these things.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Ye are witnesses of these things - He gave them a full commission to proclaim these glad tidings of peace and salvation to a lost world. The disciples were witnesses not only that Christ had suffered and rose again from the dead; but also that he opens the understanding by the inspiration of his Spirit, that he gives repentance, that he pardons sin, and purifies from all unrighteousness, and that he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come unto the knowledge of the truth and be saved.
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1858)
Let us observe, firstly, in these verses — the gift which our Lord bestowed on His disciples immediately before He left the world. We read that He "opened their understanding — that they might understand the Scriptures." We must not misapprehend these words. We are not to suppose that the disciples knew nothing about the Old Testament up to this time, and that the Bible is a book which no ordinary person can expect to comprehend. We are simply to understand that Jesus showed His disciples the full meaning of many passages which had hitherto been hidden from their eyes.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1858)
proposed
Let us observe, firstly, in these verses — the gift which our Lord bestowed on His disciples immediately before He left the world. We read that He "opened their understanding — that they might understand the Scriptures." We must not misapprehend these words. We are not to suppose that the disciples knew nothing about the Old Testament up to this time, and that the Bible is a book which no ordinary person can expect to comprehend. We are simply to understand that Jesus showed His disciples the full meaning of many passages which had hitherto been hidden from their eyes. Above all, He showed the true interpretation of many prophetic passages concerning the Messiah. We all need a like enlightenment of our understandings. "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14.) Pride, and prejudice, and love of the world — blind our intellects, and throw a veil over the eyes of our minds, in the reading of the Scriptures. We see the words, but do not thoroughly understand them — until we are taught from above. He who desires to read his Bible with profit, must first ask the Lord Jesus to open the eyes of his understanding by the Holy Spirit. Human commentaries are useful in their way. The help of good and learned men, is not to be despised. But there is no commentary to be compared with the teaching of Christ. A humble and prayerful spirit, will find a thousand things in the Bible — which the proud, self-conceited student will utterly fail to discern. Let us observe secondly in these verses — the remarkable manner in which the Lord Jesus speaks of His own death on the cross . He does not speak of it as a misfortune, or as a thing to be lamented — but as a necessity .
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Are witnesses of these things - Of my life, my sufferings, my death, and my resurrection. How solemn was their office - to “testify” these things to the world, and, in the face of suffering and death, to go and proclaim them to all nations! In like manner, “all” Christians are witnesses for Christ. They are the “evidences” of his mercy and his love, and they should so live that others may be brought to see and love the Saviour.
The words behind it
3 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ὑμεῖς | humeis | You yourselves | G4771 → | 2973 times |
| μάρτυρες | martures | witnesses | G3144 → | |
| τούτων, | touton | of these things, | G3778 → | 1381 times |
ὑμεῖςYou yourselves
humeisG4771 →2973 times
μάρτυρεςwitnesses
marturesG3144 →
τούτων,of these things,
toutonG3778 →1381 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Acts 1:8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
it leads to
- Acts 4:33
With great power the apostles continued to give their testimony about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And abundant grace was upon them all.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Matthew 28:19
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
- Mark 16:15
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
- Romans 15:19
by the power of signs and wonders, and by the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.
- Acts 5:32
We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
- Acts 4:33
Through
Acts 5:32We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
it leads to
- Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- John 15:26–27
When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—He will testify about Me.
- Acts 1:8
Through
Acts 10:41not by all the people, but by the witnesses God had chosen beforehand, by us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.
it leads to
- John 14:22
Judas (not Iscariot) asked Him, “Lord, why are You going to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?”
- John 14:22
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies19
- The Apocrypha
- The Tanakh
- The Torah
- Bread
- Luke (the Savior of All)
- How We Got the Bible
- Lydia: Acts 16:11-15, 40
- Messianic Prophecy
- The Messianic Psalms
- Moses Wrote of Me
- Prayer in Luke: Jesus at Every Hinge
- The Ascension: Acts 1:1-11 · Luke 24:50-53
- The Canticles: the Four Songs of Luke 1-2
- The Ending of Mark: 16:9-20
- The Intertestamental Period
- The Promise of the Father
- The Road to Emmaus: Luke 24:13-35
- The Women Who Followed: Luke 8:1-3 and the Passion Witnesses
- The Road to Ecbatana
About Luke
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Gospels; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bonaventure, Commentary on Luke, Chapter 24; Eusebius of Caesarea, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748) and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Luke.