Luke Chapter 4 verse 20 Holy Bible
And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down: and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him.
read chapter 4 in ASV
And shutting the book he gave it back to the servant and took his seat: and the eyes of all in the Synagogue were fixed on him.
read chapter 4 in BBE
And having rolled up the book, when he had delivered it up to the attendant, he sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him.
read chapter 4 in DARBY
And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
read chapter 4 in KJV
read chapter 4 in WBT
He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him.
read chapter 4 in WEB
And having folded the roll, having given `it' back to the officer, he sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were gazing on him.
read chapter 4 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 20. - And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. This was the usual position adopted by a Jewish preacher. The chair of the preacher was placed near the spot where the lesson was read. These synagogues were built with the end pointed towards Jerusalem, in which direction the Jew ever loved to turn as he prayed (Daniel 6:10). The men sat on one side of the building, the women on the other. There was always at the end of the chamber an ark of wood, a memory of the sacred ark of the covenant, which once, with its golden mercy-seat, hallowed now and again with the presence of the visible glory, was the chief treasure of the temple ca Mount Zion. In the "ark" were kept the Law (the five books of Moses) and the rolls of the prophets.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(20) And he closed the book.--Better, rolled up, as describing the actual manner of closing. The description is characteristic as indicating (1) that it probably came in the first instance from an eye-witness-and (2) the calmness and deliberation with which our Lord acted.And sat down.--This conveys to us the idea of falling back to a place of comparative obscurity among the congregation. To the Jew it implied just the opposite. The chair near the place from which the lesson was read was the pulpit of the Rabbi, and to sit down in that chair (as in Matthew 5:1; Matthew 23:2) was an assumption by our Lord, apparently for the first time in that synagogue, of the preacher's function. This led to the eager, fixed gaze of wonder which the next clause speaks of.Fastened on him.--The Greek word so rendered is noticeable as being used twelve times by St. Luke, (chiefly in the Acts), and twice by St. Paul (2Corinthians 3:7; 2Corinthians 3:13), and by no other writer of the New Testament. It had been used by Aristotle in his scientific writings, and was probably a half-technical word which St. Luke's studies as a physician had brought into his vocabulary, and which St. Paul learnt, as it were, from him.
