[980] Compare Matt. 17:20; 21:21; Mark 9:23; 11:23; see page [381] herein.
[981] Compare Job 22:3; 35:7.
[982] Luke 17:11-19. Many writers treat this occurrence as having immediately followed the repulse of Jesus and the apostles in a certain Samaritan village (Luke 9:52-56). We give it place in the order followed by Luke, the sole recorder of the two incidents.
[983] Compare Lev. 13:2; 14:2; see also page [189] herein.
[984] Compare case of Naaman the Syrian, 2 Kings 5:14.
[985] Luke 18:9-14. Luke's narrative, the order of which we have followed in the events succeeding Christ's departure from Jerusalem after the Feast of Tabernacles, includes our Lord's reply to the Pharisee's question as to "when the kingdom of God should come," and additions thereto (17:20-37); these matters were afterward treated with greater fulness in a discourse near Jerusalem (Matt. 24) and will be considered in connection with that later event. The Parable of the Importunate Widow (Luke 18:1-7) has already received attention, (page [436]).
[986] Note to what blasphemous extreme the doctrine of supererogation, or excess of merit, was carried by the papacy in the 13th century; see "The Great Apostasy," 913-15.
[987] Compare Luke 14:11.
[988] Matt. 19:3-12; see also Mark 10:2-12. This subject is introduced by Matthew and Mark directly preceding that of Christ blessing little children; which latter is recorded by Luke next after the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. We therefore turn from Luke's record to the accounts given by the other synoptic writers.