KJV: And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
YLT: And there were shepherds in the same region, lodging in the field, and keeping the night-watches over their flock,
Darby: And there were shepherds in that country abiding without, and keeping watch by night over their flock.
ASV: And there were shepherds in the same country abiding in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock.
| ποιμένες | shepherds |
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Parse: Noun, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: ποιμήν Sense: a herdsman, esp. a shepherd. |
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| χώρᾳ | region |
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Parse: Noun, Dative Feminine Singular Root: χώρα Sense: the space lying between two places or limits. |
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| τῇ | - |
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Parse: Article, Dative Feminine Singular Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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| αὐτῇ | same |
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Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Dative Feminine 3rd Person Singular Root: αὐτός Sense: himself, herself, themselves, itself. |
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| ἀγραυλοῦντες | lodging in the fields |
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Parse: Verb, Present Participle Active, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: ἀγραυλέω Sense: to live in the fields, be under the open sky, even at night. |
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| φυλάσσοντες | keeping |
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Parse: Verb, Present Participle Active, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: φυλάσσω Sense: to guard. |
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| φυλακὰς | watch |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Plural Root: φυλακή Sense: guard, watch. |
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| τῆς | - |
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Parse: Article, Genitive Feminine Singular Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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| νυκτὸς | by night |
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Parse: Noun, Genitive Feminine Singular Root: νύξ Sense: night. |
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| ἐπὶ | over |
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Parse: Preposition Root: ἐπί Sense: upon, on, at, by, before. |
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| ποίμνην | flock |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular Root: ποίμνη Sense: a flock (esp.) of sheep. |
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| αὐτῶν | of them |
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Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural Root: αὐτός Sense: himself, herself, themselves, itself. |
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Greek Commentary for Luke 2:8
From αγρος agros field and αυλη aulē court. The shepherds were making the field their court. Plutarch and Strabo use the word. [source]
Cognate accusative. They were bivouacking by night and it was plainly mild weather. In these very pastures David had fought the lion and the bear to protect the sheep (1 Samuel 17:34.). The plural here probably means that they watched by turns. The flock may have been meant for the temple sacrifices. There is no way to tell. [source]
Luke's Gospel is the gospel of the poor and lowly. This revelation to the shepherds acquires additional meaning as we remember that shepherds, as a class, were under the Rabbinic ban, because of their necessary isolation from religious ordinances, and their manner of life, which rendered strict legal observance well-nigh impossible. [source]
Φυλακή is sometimes used of a watch as a measure of time, as in Matthew 14:25; Mark 6:48; Luke 12:38. So possibly here. See Rev. in margin, night-watches. There is a play upon the words: watching watches. There was near Bethlehem, on the road to Jerusalem, a tower known as Migdal Eder, or the watch-tower of the flock. Here was the station where shepherds watched the flocks destined for sacrifice in the temple. Animals straying from Jerusalem on any side, as far as from Jerusalem to Migdal Eder, were offered in sacrifice. It was a settled conviction among the Jews that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, and equally that he was to be revealed from Migdal Eder. The beautiful significance of the revelation of the infant Christ to shepherds watching the flocks destined for sacrifice needs no comment. [source]
May not the singular number fall in with what has just been said?- the flock, the temple-flock, specially devoted to sacrifice. The pronoun their would furnish no objection, since it is common to speak of the flock as belonging to the shepherd. Compare John 10:3, John 10:4. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Luke 2:8
See on Luke 2:8. These shepherdshaving charge of flocks devoted to sacrifice, would presently be in the temple, and would meet those who came to worship and to sacrifice, and so proclaim the Messiah in the temple. [source]
See note on Matthew 2:23 about Nazareth. Luke tells nothing of the flight to Egypt and the reason for the return to Nazareth instead of Bethlehem, the place of the birth of Jesus as told in Matthew 2:13-23. But then neither Gospel gives all the details of this period. Luke has also nothing about the visit of the wise men (Matthew 2:1-12) as Matthew tells nothing of the shepherds and of Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:8-28). The two Gospels supplement each other. [source]
The A.V. entirely ignores the distinction between αὐλή , fold, and ποίμνη , flock. The latter word is found Matthew 26:31; Luke 2:8; 1 Corinthians 9:7, and always distinctly meaning a flock, as does also the diminutive ποίμνιον , little flock (Luke 12:32; 1 Peter 5:2, etc.). Render, as Rev., one flock, one shepherd. So Tyndale's Version of the New Testament. Compare Ezekiel 34:23. We are not, however, to say with Trench (“A.V. of the New Testament”), that the Jew and the Gentile are the two folds which Christ will gather into a single flock. The heathen are not conceived as a fold, but as a dispersion. See John 7:35; John 11:52; and, as Meyer observes, “the thought of a divine leading of the heathen does not correspond at all to the figure of fold, of which the conception of theocratic fellowship constitutes an essential feature.” So Bengel. “He says, other sheep, not another fold, for they were scattered abroad in the world.” When Jesus speaks of the other sheep who are not from this fold, the emphasis is on fold, not on this. Compare Romans 11:17sqq. Nor, moreover, does Jesus mean that the Gentiles are to be incorporated into the Jewish fold, but that the unity of the two is to consist in their common relation to Himself. “The unity of the Church does not spring out of the extension of the old kingdom, but is the spiritual antitype of that earthly figure. Nothing is said of one fold under the new dispensation” (Westcott). It will readily be seen that the incorrect rendering fostered by the carelessness or the mistake of some of the Western fathers, and by the Vulgate, which renders both words by ovile, fold, has been in the interest of Romish claims. [source]
Authorities differ, some explaining by 2 Peter 2:4; Judges 1:6; Revelation 20:7, as the final abode of the lost. Excepting in the last passage, the word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament in a metaphorical sense. It is often translated watch (Matthew 14:25; Luke 2:8); hold and cage (Revelation 18:2). Others explain as Hades, the kingdom of the dead generally. [source]