The people which sat; "who walk" (Hebrew). Saw great light; saw a great light (Revised Version); unnecessarily except as a matter of English, for it can hardly mean a definite light, Messiah. φῶς both here and in the next clause means light as such. And to them which sat. So the Hebrew, but the LXX. generally οἱκατοικοῦντες. In the region and shadow of death. The region where death abides, and where it casts its thickest shade. The Hebrew is simply "in the land of the shadow of death" ( תומלץ צראב, according to the traditional interpretation), which the present LXX. (Vatican) probably represents ( ἐν χώρᾳ σκιᾷ θανάτου), the ς of σκιᾶς having been misread before θ. But copyists, not understanding this, inserted καὶ between χώρᾳ and σκιᾷ (as in A), and this reading became popularly known, and was used by the evangelist. That the reading of A was derived from the evangelist is unlikely, for the reading σκιᾷ must, at all events, have been before his time. Light is sprung up; to them, did light spring up (Revised Version); ἀνέτειλεν. The tense emphasizes not the abiding effect (e.g. in the fact that so many of the disciples were Galilaeans), but the moment of his appearance. The father of the Baptist also remembered this passage of Isaiah (Luke 1:78, Luke 1:79, where cf. Godet).
THE FIRST STAGE OF CHRIST'S WORK AND TEACHING.