Luke 6:15

Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:12-19 We often think one half hour a great deal to spend in meditation and secret prayer, but Christ was whole nights engaged in these duties. 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. The twelve apostles are here named; never were men so privileged, yet one of them had a devil, and proved a traitor. Those who have not faithful preaching near them, had better travel far than be without it. It is indeed 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. They came to be cured by him, and he healed them. There is a fulness of grace in Christ, and healing virtue in him, ready to go out from him, that is enough for all, enough for each. Men regard the diseases of the body as greater evils than those of their souls; but the Scripture teaches us differently.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the notes at Matthew 10:1-4.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13-16. (See on [1583]Mt 10:2-4.)

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 6:13"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Matthew and Thomas,.... The first of these was a publican, and who also was called Levi; and the latter had besides the name of Didymus, and was he that was so unbelieving of Christ's resurrection:

James the son of Alphaeus; sometimes called James the less, and the brother of our Lord: and

Simon called Zelotes; or the Canaanite; See Gill on Matthew 10:4.

Geneva Study Bible

Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. called Zelotes] Rather, who was called the Zealot.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 6:15. Ζηλωτὴν, the devotee) The name of His native country [Cana or Canaan] hereby is turned, from its derivation, into a designation of merit.[59]

[59] In Matthew 10:4, Simon, the Canaanite, Th. קָנָא, to be zealous. However Καναναῖος is probably not, as Beng. thinks, the name of his country, but קַנְּאָן = ζηλωτὴς. So the LXX. Exodus 20:5. Matthew, as writing to Jews, uses the Hebrew name; Luke, as writing to Gentiles, the Greek. Before conversion he probably had belonged to the sect of Zealots, who, like Phinehas, Numbers 25:7, took the execution of the law into their own hands. Subsequently, he was probably zealous in the better sense, and in that sense the name was still applied to him as an apostle. The Greek subsequently supplanted the Hebrew name, as Πέτρος did Cephas.—ED. and TRANSL.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - Matthew. In the list contained in the Gospel which unanimous Church traditions ascribe to this apostle, "the publican" (tax-gatherer) is significantly added. His brother evangelists, Mark and Luke, in their catalogues, omit the hated profession to which he once belonged. Simon called Zelotes. In SS. Matthew and Mark this apostle is called "Simon the Kananite." This epithet does not mean that Simon was a native or dweller in Cana of Galilee, but the epithet "Kananite" had the same signification as "Zelotes," the surname given by St. Luke, which is best rendered as "the Zealot." Kananite is derived from the Hebrew word קנא, zeal. "He had once, therefore, belonged to the sect of terrible fanatics who thought any deed of violence justifiable for the recovery of national freedom, and had probably been one of the wild followers of Judas the Gaulonite (Josephus, 'Bell. Jud.,' 4:03. 9). Their name was derived from 1 Macc. 2:50, where the dying Mattathias, father of Judas Maccabaeus, says to the Assidaeans (Chasidim, i.e. 'all such as were voluntarily devoted to the Law'), 'Be ye zealous for the Law, and give your lives for the covenant of your fathers'" (Archdeacon Farrar). Luke 6:15

Vincent's Word Studies

Matthew

See on Superscription of Matthew.

Thomas

See on Mark 3:18.

Simon

Distinguished by Matthew and Hark as the Cananaean. See on Matthew 10:4; and Mark 3:18.