Luke 24:41

And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(41) While they yet believed not for joy.—We again note St. Luke’s characteristic tendency to psychological analysis. As men sleep for sorrow (Luke 22:45), so they disbelieve for very joy. What is brought before their eyes is too good to be true.

Have ye here any meat?—Literally, anything to eat, any food. Here again there is an agreement with St. John (21:5). A new crucial test is given of the reality of the resurrection-body. It could be no shadow or spectre that thus asked for food. This we all feel; but the further question, whether there was not only the power to receive food, but a life in any sense dependent upon the laws which govern the bodily life of men, leads us into a region of problems which we cannot solve, and on which it is profitless to dwell. What seems suggested is a spiritual existence capable, by an act of volition, of assuming, in greater or less measure, the conditions of corporeal. We note how the Apostles dwelt afterwards on what now occurred as a proof of their Lord’s resurrection. They had “eaten and drunk with Him” (Acts 10:41).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:36-49 Jesus appeared in a miraculous manner, assuring the disciples of his peace, though they had so lately forsaken him, and promising spiritual peace with every blessing. Many troublesome thoughts which disquiet our minds, rise from mistakes concerning Christ. All the troublesome thoughts which rise in our hearts at any time, are known to the Lord Jesus, and are displeasing to him. He spake with them on their unreasonable unbelief. Nothing had passed but what was foretold by the prophets, and necessary for the salvation of sinners. And now all men should be taught the nature and necessity of repentance, in order to the forgiveness of their sins. And these blessings were to be sought for, by faith in the name of Jesus. Christ by his Spirit works on the minds of men. Even good men need to have their understandings opened. But that we may have right thoughts of Christ, there needs no more than to be made to understand the Scriptures.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Believed not for joy - Their joy was so great, and his appearance was so sudden and unexpected, that they were bewildered, and still sought more evidence of the truth of what they "wished" to believe. This is nature. We have similar expressions in our language. "The news is too good to be true;" or, "I cannot believe it; it is too much for me."

Any meat - This word does not mean "meat" in our sense of it, but in the old English sense, denoting "anything to eat."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

41. believed not for joy, &c.—They did believe, else they had not rejoiced [Bengel]. But it seemed too good to be true (Ps 126:1, 2).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 41-43. Believed not for joy; yet if they had not now believed, they doubtless would not have rejoiced, but their faith was the cause of their joy; yet the excess of their joy was the hinderance of their faith; so dangerous are the excessive motions of our affections. Christ here gives them another evidence of the truth of his body, he

did eat before them, though very ordinary country diet, a piece of broiled fish, and of a honey comb; such a meal as we read of that he had at the lake of Tiberius, John 21:9. He did not eat to uphold, but only to testify, his life. Thus when he had raised the daughter of Jairus, Luke 8:55, he bid them give her something to eat; and for this end Lazarus sat at meat with the rest, John 12:2 and Peter proves the resurrection of Christ from their eating and drinking with him, Acts 10:41. Let not profane wits seek knots in bulrushes, inquiring what became of this meat? &c. Let them first tell us what became of the meat the angels did eat with Abraham, Genesis 18:8, and learn to believe, that it was easy with the power of God to annihilate again that meat, which was not necessary for the sustentation of the body of Christ, now freed from all the cravings of natural appetite, though he did eat it to satisfy them that he was truly risen from the dead.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And while they yet believed not for joy,.... Though they had been prepared for the belief of resurrection, by the report of the women, the relation of Simon Peter, and the account of the two disciples that came from Emmaus; yet such was the joy they were transported with, upon the evidence of it, the news was so good, and the favour and benefit so great, that they could scarcely believe their own senses of seeing and feeling:

and wondered; at the sight of their risen Lord, and at the power of God, which was seen herein: the thing was marvellous in their eyes, and was a wonderful confirmation of the truth of his deity, sonship, and Messiahship.

He said unto them, have ye any meat? not that he needed any, or was hungry and desirous of some to satisfy, or gratify his appetite, but to give them a further proof that he was not a spirit; and that he was risen from the dead in a true and real body, which was capable of eating and drinking.

Geneva Study Bible

And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Luke 24:41-43. Ἔτι] in the sense of still; see Schneider, ad Plat. Rep. p. 449 C.

ἀπὸ τῆς χαρᾶς] on account of the (presently experienced by them, comp. Luke 22:45; Acts 12:14; Matthew 13:44) joy. That a great and happy surprise keeps back and delays the full conviction of the truth of the happy event itself, is a matter of psychological experience; Liv. xxxix. 49: Vix sibimet ipsi prae nec opinato gaudio credentes.

εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· ἔχετε κ.τ.λ.] πρὸς πλείονα πίστιν καὶ βεβαιοτέραν ἀπόδειξιν τοῦ μὴ δοκεῖν φάσμ.], Euthymius Zigabenus.

καὶ ἀπὸ μελισσ. κηρίου] and (some) of a bee’s honeycomb (favus). μελισσίου is added as a distinction from any other kind of honey. The word, however, does not elsewhere occur, but μελισσαῖος (Nicander, Th. 611); 1 Samuel 14:27 : κηρίον τοῦ μέλιτος. On διδόναι ἀπό, comp. Luke 20:10.

Luke 24:43. ἔφαγεν] in respect of which what had already gone before (Luke 24:39-40) must keep at a distance the idea of a merely apparent eating, such as is attributed to angels, Tob 12:19 (comp. Genesis 18:8; Genesis 19:3). Comp. Acts 10:41.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 24:41. ἀπὸ τῆς χαρᾶς, a psychological touch quite in Lk.’s manner. Cf. Luke 22:45 : there asleep from grief, here unbelievers from joy. Hahn takes χαρά objectively.—τι βρώσιμον, anything eatable, here only in N.T.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

41. believed not for joy] One of the psychological touches of which St Luke is fond, and profoundly true to nature (comp. Liv. xxxix. 49).

any meat] Rather, anything to eat; see on Luke 3:11, Luke 8:55.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 24:41. Ἀπιστούντων, whilst they were distrusting the evidence of their senses) They no doubt believed at the time, otherwise they would not have rejoiced: but the full exercise of their faith was being retarded by their joy. Strong affection and intent knowledge mutually impede one another.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 41, 42. - And while they yet believed not for joy. The awful joy of the disciples now was something too. deep for words, even for calm belief. St. John records it, too, with simple pathos. "Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord." This was the fulfilment of his promise to them, when, full of sadness, they were listening to him that last solemn Passover evening in the upper room. "Ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you" (John 16:22). In after-days, as John preached and taught in his old age, how the remembrance of that hour must have stirred in his heart when he thus wrote of it! Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. The Master would not permit this state of wondering ecstasy to continue; so he changes the current of their thoughts by thus descending into the region of everyday life, at the same time powerfully demonstrating by this further proof that, though changed, his resurrection, body was no mere Docetic semblance, no phantom, but that he could eat if he chose. The next sentence (ver. 43) tells simply how he took the food, and ate before them. The fish and honeycomb which they gave him no doubt formed the staple of their evening meal. Fish was part of the common food of the disciples - we see this from the miracles of the five thousand and the four thousand, and also from the narrative of John 21:9. Honey, we know, in Canaan, the laud flowing with milk and honey, was common enough to enter into the diet of the poor (compare, among many passages, Exodus 3:8, 17; Deuteronomy 26:9, 15; Jeremiah 11:5; Isaiah 7:15, 22; Matthew 3:4). Luke 24:41

Vincent's Word Studies

Meat (βρώσιμον)

Only here in New Testament. Lit., anything eatable. Wyc., anything that shall be eaten. Rev., better, anything to eat, as the word meat has largely lost, in popular usage, its old sense of food in general.