Luke 4:19 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

The acceptable year of the Lord. — The primary reference was to the year of Jubilee, when land that had been mortgaged returned to its owner, and debts were forgiven, and Israelite slaves released (Leviticus 25:9-10). It was to our Lord, as it had been to Isaiah, the type of the “year” of the divine kingdom. A somewhat slavish literalism, which the study of St. John’s Gospel (Luke 2:5; Luke 2:6; Luke 2:7; Luke 2:12) would have dispelled in an hour, led some of the Fathers to infer from this that our Lord’s ministry lasted but for a single year.