Quotes & Notes on:     Luke 10:42    John Wesley,  Notes On the New Testament (1755): Mary hath chosen the good part-To save her soul. Reader, hast thou? Reginald Fuller's Preaching the Lectionary (1984):  To be posted.   William Baird, Interpreter's Commentary, 1971:  To be posted.   J. McNicol, The New Bible Commentary, 1954:  To be posted.   I.H. Marshall, The New Bible Commentary, 1970:  To be posted.   David Guzik, Study Guide: To be posted.   Chuck Smith, Study Guide: To be posted.   Catechism of the Catholic Church: To be posted.   J. Norval Geldenhuys, Bible Expositor, 1960: To be posted.   Abingdon Bible Commentary (1929): To be posted.   D.D. Whedon, Commentary on Luke, 1866: To be posted.   Joseph Parker, People's Bible, 1901: To be posted.   Anchor Bible: To be posted.   The Fourfold Gospel:  But one thing is needful. That is, one duty or privilege is pre-eminent. Bread for the body may be important, but food for the soul is, after all, the one thing needful. For Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. The expression "good part" is an allusion to the portion of honor sent to the principal guest at a banquet. Its use shows that Jesus had food in mind when he used the expression "one thing is needful," and that he was contrasting spiritual nourishment with physical. The description of the two sisters here tallies with that given at Joh 12:2,3, for there Martha serves and Mary expresses personal devotion. Our Lord's rebuke is not aimed at hospitality, nor at a life full of energy and business. It is intended to reprove that fussy fretfulness which attempts many unneeded things, and ends in worry and fault-finding. It does not set a life of religious contemplation above a life of true religious activity, for contemplation is here contrasted with activity put forth with a faulty spirit. The trend of the New Testament teaching shows that a man must be a doer as well as a hearer of the Word (Lu 8:21; Jas 1:22,23). Treasury of Scripture Knowledge: * one. Lu 18:22; Ps 27:4; 73:25; Ec 12:13; Mr 8:36; Joh 17:3; 1Co 13:3; Ga 5:6 Col 2:10-19; 1Jo 5:11,12 * chosen. De 30:19; Jos 24:15,22; Ps 17:15; 119:30,111,173 * good. Ps 16:5; 142:5 * which. Lu 8:18; 12:20; 16:2,25; Joh 4:14; 5:24; 10:27,28; Ro 8:35-39 Col 3:3,4; 1Pe 1:4,5   Robertson's Word Pictures: The good portion (tên agathên merida). The best dish on the table, fellowship with Jesus. This is the spiritual application of the metaphor of the dishes on the table. Salvation is not "the good portion" for Martha had that also. From her (autês). Ablative case after aphairêthêsetai (future passive indicative). Jesus pointedly takes Mary's side against Martha's fussiness.   William Burkitt's Notes: No comment on this verse.   Family Bible Notes:  One thing is needful; needful especially, above all other things. That good part; the favor of God, through love and obedience to his commands. Shall not be taken away; Job 17:9; Joh 4:14; 10:27-21:25   1599 Geneva Bible Notes: No comment on this verse.   People's New Testament Commentary: One thing is needful. Jesus cared nothing for bodily indulgence. The important thing was the bread of life. That, Mary had chosen. Heed the lesson that he who receives most of his word and spirit, is most pleasing in his sight.   Albert Barnes' Commentary:  But one thing is needful. That is, religion, or piety. This is eminently and peculiarly needful. Other things are of little importance. This should be secured first, and then all other things will be added. See 1Ti 4:8; Mt 6:33. That good part. The portion of the gospel; the love of God, and an interest in his kingdom. She had chosen to be a Christian, and to give up her time and affections to God. Which shall not be taken away. God will not take away his grace from his people, neither shall any man pluck them out of his hand, Joh 10:28,29. From this interesting narrative we learn-- 1st. That the cares of this life are dangerous, even when they seem to be most lawful and commendable. Nothing of a worldly nature could have been more proper than to provide for the Lord Jesus and supply his wants. Yet even for this, because it too much engrossed her mind, the Lord Jesus gently reproved Martha. So a care for our families may be the means of our neglecting religion and losing our souls. 2nd. It is of more importance to attend to the instructions of the Lord Jesus than to be engaged in the affairs of the world. The one will abide for ever; the other will be but for a little time. 3rd. There are times when it is proper to suspend worldly employments, and to attend to the affairs of the soul. It was proper for Mary to do it. It would have been proper for Martha to have done it. It is proper for all--on the Sabbath and at other occasional seasons --seasons of prayer and for searching the word of God--to suspend worldly concerns and to attend to religion. 4th. If attention to religion be omitted at the proper time, it will always be omitted. If Mary had neglected to hear Jesus then, she might never have heard him. 5th. Piety is the chief thing needed. Other things will perish. We shall soon die, All that we can gain we must leave. But the soul will live. There is a judgment-seat; there is a heaven; there is a hell; and all that is needful to prepare us to die, and to make us happy forever, is to be a friend of Jesus, and to listen to his teaching: 6th. Piety is the chief ornament in a female. It sweetens every other virtue; adorns every other grace; gives new loveliness to the tenderness, mildness, and grace of the female character. Nothing is more lovely than a female sitting at the feet of the meek and lowly Jesus, like Mary; nothing more unlovely than entire absorption in the affairs of the world, like Martha. The most lovely female is she who has most of the spirit of Jesus; the least amiable, she who neglects her soul--who is proud, gay, thoughtless, envious, and unlike the meek and lowly Redeemer. At his feet are peace, purity, joy. Everywhere else an alluring and wicked world steals the affections and renders us vain, gay, wicked, proud, and unwilling to die. {s} "one thing" Ps 27:4; Ec 12:13; Mr 8:36; Lu 18:22; 1Co 13:3   Jamieson-Faussett Brown:  one thing, &c.--The idea of "Short work and little of it suffices for Me" is not so much the lower sense of these weighty words, as supposed in them, as the basis of something far loftier than any precept on economy. Underneath that idea is couched another, as to the littleness both of elaborate preparation for the present life and of that life itself, compared with another. chosen the good part--not in the general sense of Moses' choice (Heb 11:25), and Joshua's (Jos 24:15), and David's (Ps 119:30); that is, of good in opposition to bad; but, of two good ways of serving and pleasing the Lord, choosing the better. Wherein, then, was Mary's better than Martha's? Hear what follows. not be taken away--Martha's choice would be taken from her, for her services would die with her; Mary's never, being spiritual and eternal. Both were true-hearted disciples, but the one was absorbed in the higher, the other in the lower of two ways of honoring their common Lord. Yet neither despised, or would willingly neglect, the other's occupation. The one represents the contemplative, the other the active style of the Christian character. A Church full of Marys would perhaps be as great an evil as a Church full of Marthas. Both are needed, each to be the complement of the other.   Spurgeon Devotional Commentary:  No comment on this verse.   Adam Clarke's Commentary:  One thing is needful] This is the end of the sentence, according to Bengel. "Now Mary hath chosen, &c.," begins a new one. One single dish, the simplest and plainest possible, is such as best suits me and my disciples, whose meat and drink it is to do the will of our heavenly Father. Mary hath chosen that good part] That is, of hearing my word, of which she shall not be deprived; it being at present of infinitely greater importance to attend to my teaching than to attend to any domestic concerns. While thou art busily employed in providing that portion of perishing food for perishing bodies, Mary has chosen that spiritual portion which endures for ever, and which shall not be taken away from her; therefore I cannot command her to leave her present employment, and go and help thee to bring forward a variety of matters, which are by no means necessary at this time. Our Lord both preached and practised the doctrine of self-denial; he and his disciples were contented with a little, and sumptuous entertainments are condemned by the spirit and design of his Gospel. Multos morbos, multa fercula fecerunt. SENECA. "Many dishes, many diseases." Bishop PEARCE remarks that the word , needful, is used after the same manner for want of food in Mr 2:25, where of David it is said, , he had need, when it means he was hungry. I believe the above to be the true meaning of these verses; but others have taken a somewhat different sense from them: especially when they suppose that by one thing needful our Lord means the salvation of the soul. To attend to this is undoubtedly the most necessary of all things, and should be the first, the grand concern of every human spirit; but in my opinion it is not the meaning of the words in the text. It is only prejudice from the common use of the words in this way that could make such an interpretation tolerable. KYPKE in loc. has several methods of interpreting this passage. Many eminent commentators, both ancient and modern, consider the text in the same way I have done. But this is termed by some, "a frigid method of explaining the passage;" well, so let it be; but he that fears God will sacrifice every thing at the shrine of TRUTH. I believe this alone to be the true meaning oœ the place, and I dare not give it any other. Bengelius points the whole passage thus: Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful. Now, Mary hath chosen that good portion, which shall not be taken away from her. THAT the salvation of the soul is the first and greatest of all human concerns, every man must acknowledge who feels that he has a soul; and in humility of mind to hear Jesus, is the only way of getting that acquaintance with the doctrine of salvation without which how can he be saved? While we fancy we are in no spiritual necessity, the things which concern salvation will not appear needful to us! A conviction that we are spiritually poor must precede our application for the true riches. The whole, says Christ, need not the physician, but those who are sick. Martha has been blamed, by incautious people, as possessing a carnal, worldly spirit; and as Mary Magdalene has been made the chief of all prostitutes, so has Martha of all the worldly-minded. Through her affectionate respect for our Lord and his disciples, and through that alone, she erred. There is not the slightest intimation that she was either worldly-minded or careless about her soul; nor was she at this time improperly employed, only so far as the abundance of her affection led her to make a greater provision than was necessary on the occasion. Nor are our Lord's words to be understood as a reproof; they are a kind and tender expostulation, tending to vindicate the conduct of Mary. The utmost that can be said on the subject is, Martha was well employed, but Mary, on this occasion, better. If we attend to the punctuation of the original text, the subject will appear more plain. I shall transcribe the text from Bengel's own edition, Stutgardiae, 1734, 12mo. Lu 10:41,42, v. 41.   "Then Jesus answered her, Martha, Martha, thou art anxiously careful and disturbed about many things; but one thing is necessary. But Mary hath chosen that good portion which shall not be taken away from her." I have shown, in my notes, that Martha was making a greater provision for her guests than was needful; that it was in consequence of this that she required her sister's help; that Jesus tenderly reproved her for her unnecessary anxiety and superabundant provision, and asserted that but one thing, call it course or dish, was necessary on the occasion, yet she had provided many; and that this needless provision was the cause of the anxiety and extra labour. Then, taking occasion, from the circumstances of the case, to vindicate Mary's conduct, and to direct his loving reproof more pointedly at Martha's heart, he adds, Mary hath chosen a good portion; that is, she avails herself of the present opportunity to hear my teaching, and inform herself in those things which are essential to the salvation of the soul. I cannot, therefore, order her to leave my teaching, to serve in what I know to be an unnecessary service, however kindly designed: for it would be as unjust to deprive her of this bread of life, after which she so earnestly hungers, as to deprive thee, or thy guests, of that measure of common food necessary to sustain life. All earthly portions are perishing: "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, but God will destroy both it and then; but the work of the Lord abideth for ever;" her portion, therefore, shall not be taken away from her. This is my view of the whole subject; and all the terms in the original, not only countenance this meaning, but necessarily require it. The words, one thing is needful, on which we lay so much stress, are wanting in some of the most ancient MSS., and are omitted by some of the fathers, who quote all the rest of the passage: a plain proof that the meaning which we take out of them was not thought of in very ancient times; and in other MSS., versions, and fathers, there is an unusual variety of readings where even the thing, or something like it, is retained. Some have it thus; Martha, Martha, thou labourest much, and yet a little is sufficient, yea, one thing only. Others: And only one thing is required. Others: Thou art curious and embarrassed about many things, when that which is needful is very small. Others: But here there need only a few things. Others: But a few things, or one only, is necessary. Now these are the readings of almost all the ancient versions; and we plainly perceive, by them, that what we term the one thing needful, is not understood by one of them as referring to the salvation of the soul, but to the provision THEN to be made. It would be easy to multiply authorities, but I spare both my own time and that of my reader. In short, I wonder how the present most exceptionable mode of interpretation ever obtained; as having no countenance in the text, ancient MSS. or versions, and as being false in itself; for even Christ himself could not say, that sitting at his feet, and hearing his word, was the ONE thing NEEDFUL. Repentance, faith, prayer, obedience, and a thousand other things are necessary to our salvation, besides merely hearing the doctrines of Christ, even with the humblest heart.   Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary: No comment on this verse.   Quotes on Luke 10:38-42 The Greek word properly signifies, "to be drawn different ways at the same time," and admirably expresses the situation of a mind surrounded (as Martha's then was) with so many objects of care, that it hardly knows which to attend first. - John Wesley, Notes Upon the New Testament, Vol. 1, on Luke 10:40 To save her soul.  Reader, hast thou? - John Wesley, Notes Upon the New Testament, Vol. 1, on Luke 10:42 This well-known idyllic scene is placed by Luke immediately after the parable of the Good Samaritan.  In this position it corrects the activistic impression that might otherwise be deduced from Jesus' answer to the lawyer's question:   "Do this, and you will live."  Activism must spring from hearing the word of God.   Most of us would feel that we have to combine Mary and Martha -- hearing the word of God and going out into the world in active service... Most of us have to be something of each -- both the contemplative and the active. - Reginald H. Fuller, Preaching the Lectionary, p. 488ff The rest of Jesus' answer varies in the different manuscripts.  Some read "one thing is needful,"  while others say "few things are needful,"  or "only one."  It is also not clear whether the one which is needed refers simply to the number of dishes of the meal or has some spiritual significance.  Probably both are true.  The dishes of food represent devotion to the Lord.  Not many things are needed, but only dish;  Mary has chosen the good portion, for her "dish" is to hear and obey the word of God. - William Baird, Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary: Luke, p. 689 The story is not meant to show the value of the contemplative life compared to the life of action, but to teach that service to Jesus must not be misdirected to such an extent that a person has no time to learn from Him;  one honours Him more by listening to Him than by providing excessively for His needs. - I.H. Marshall, New Bible Commentary, Revised (1970):  Luke, p. 905ff It is a low construction which some put upon this, that, whereas Martha was in care to provide many dishes of meat, there was occasion but for one, one would be enough.... It is a forced construction which some of the ancients put upon it:  But oneness is needful in opposition to distractions.  There is need of one heart to attend upon the word, not divided and hurried to and fro, as Martha's was at this time. - Matthew Henry, Commentary, Vol. 5, p. 691 Interpreters find in the story of Martha and Mary conflicting messages on service and listening. - Wayne A. Meeks, Ed., HarperCollins Study Bible, p. 1980 Practical benevolence such as that of the Samaritan is not enough.  It must be combined with communion with the Lord... It was fellowship Jesus valued, not entertainment. - J. McNicol, New Bible Commentary (1954): Luke, p. 851ff What profit earthly activities, pre-eminences, gains, and enjoyments, if we miss that one absolute necessity, without which our all is lost! - D.D. Whedon, Commentary on the Gospels, Vol. Luke-John, p. 116

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