Luke Chapter 19, Verse 40
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40: και αποκριθεις ειπεν αυτοις λεγω υμιν οτι εαν ουτοι σιωπησωσιν οι λιθοι κεκραξονται
40: And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these
should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
40: To whom he said: I say to you that if these shall hold their
peace, the stones will cry out.
The stones would -- cry out. It is proper that they should
celebrate my coming. Their acclamations ought not to be suppressed. So
joyful is the event which they celebrate -- the coming of the Messiah --
that it is not fit that I should attempt to impose silence on them. The
expression here seems to be proverbial, and is not to be taken
literally. Proverbs are designed to express the truth strongly,
but are not to be taken to signify as much as if they were to be
interpreted literally. The sense is, that his coming was an event of
so much importance that it ought to be celebrated in some way, and
would be celebrated. It would be impossible to restrain the people,
and improper to attempt it. The language here is strong proverbial
language to denote that fact. We are not to suppose, therefore, that
Jesus meant to say that the stones were conscious of his coming, or
that God would make them speak, but only that there was great joy
among the people; that it was proper that they should express it in
this manner, and that it was not fit that he should attempt to repress it.
