assessment T4

Luke

INTRODUCTION

Authorship. Luke mentions “we” in a way peripheral to the action in passages in Acts 16 and 20–28; contrary to some scholarly constructs, “we” in historical literature almost always meant that the author was present on the occasions specified. Early tradition, attested by second-century witnesses and the early title of the book (see the discussion of authorship in the introduction to Mark), favors Luke, traveling companion of Paul, as the author of Luke-Acts. Although the case for Luke’s use of medical language has been exaggerated, the presence of educated language is consistent with the tradition of Lukan authorship.

Date, Purpose. Many views exist. See the introduction to Acts; some of the specific emphases of Luke-Acts are clearer in Acts than in the Gospel. Luke and Acts together made up a single two-volume work. Details of apologetic in Acts also suggests for Luke’s second volume a date within a decade or two of the events depicted (probably no later than the 70s).

Setting. Luke writes for hearers in the Greek-speaking northern Mediterranean, probably Aegean, world. At least some of his audience is well-to-do and literarily sophisticated, and possibly desires confirmation in their faith or arguments they can use to defend it. See comment on 1:3-4 and the discussion of purpose in the introduction to Acts.

Genre. See the introduction to the Gospels. Whereas the other Gospels are closer to the *genre of Greco-Roman biography, Luke’s Gospel is the first volume of a two-volume work, Luke-Acts, which is in many ways closer to a Greco-Roman history than a biography. Multivolume histories sometimes included a volume about a particular individual, hence a biographic volume within a larger history. Luke-Acts thus combines biography and historical monograph. Because Mark is one of Luke’s sources, I treat many of the passages where they overlap more thoroughly in Mark than in Luke.

Keener, C. S. (2014). The ivp bible background commentary : New testament. InterVarsity Press. Created from gcu on 2023-11-30 03:00:44.

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Luke’s Message. Various themes are especially prominent in Luke: Jesus’ ministry to the outcasts, the religiously unfit, the poor and women; this emphasis paves the way for his treatment of the *Gentile mission in volume two, the book of Acts. The plot movement is from Galilee to Jerusalem in Luke (though the book is framed by scenes in the temple), and from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth in Acts. Although those who wish to date Acts very late seek to separate it from Luke’s Gospel, most scholars recognize that the two volumes have a strong narrative unity and were meant ideally to be read together (see Acts 1:1).

Commentaries. Useful commentaries include I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979); Françios Bovon, Luke, 3 vols., Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002–2013); John T. Carroll, Luke: A Commentary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2012); F. W. Danker, Jesus and the New Age: A Commentary on St. Luke’s Gospel, rev. ed. (Minneapolis: Augsburg/Fortress, 1988); Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke, 2 vols. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981), and Craig A. Evans, Luke, NIBC (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1990). Besides general works mentioned in the introduction to Matthew, Kenneth Bailey, Poet and Peasant (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976) is helpful on the background of much of Luke (especially Lk 15). Useful monographs include, among many others, Diane G. Chen, God as Father in Luke-Acts (New York: Peter Lang, 2006). Some chapters concerning introductory questions in my Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, 4 vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012–) cite some other relevant sources.

1:1-4 The Literary Preface In Luke’s day the more sophisticated writers would often introduce their books with a piece of stylish prose written in more classical style. (Those with literary pretensions generally imitated the Greek of a much earlier period than was commonly spoken.) Luke’s introduction here is excellent in this regard.

1:1. Luke’s word here for “account” was used for a *narrative of many events, as distinct from a narrative of a single event, and was most

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characteristically (though certainly not only) applied to works of history. “Events fulfilled among us” was a natural topic for histories.

Writers compiling a work sometimes started with one main source and wove in secondary material from another source or sources. Most scholars agree that Luke begins with Mark as his main source and weaves in other material, including what most scholars call “Q” (any material that Matthew and Luke share in common that is not in Mark). Writers also normally explained why they were writing a work if other books on the same subject had appeared. Some writers invoked length (see 2 Maccabees) or stylistic considerations (see *Theon) to explain the need for a new work; other authors thought earlier writers had investigated matters inadequately (*Josephus, Artemidorus) or had embellished them *rhetorically (*Tacitus); still others simply wished to compile earlier works more thoroughly (*Quintilian).

1:2. “Handed down” was sometimes a technical term in the ancient world. *Disciples of *rabbis normally passed down first-generation traditions carefully. Elsewhere in antiquity, disciples of teachers viewed communicating accurately their teachers’ sayings as a central part of their mission; the school would continue to propagate the ideas of the founder. Why should anyone suppose that Jesus’ disciples would be less accurate than all other disciples? Historians normally consulted key eyewitnesses, many of whom remained alive and even in leadership during the period when the Gospel’s sources were being written. Ancients often trained their memories in ways that could put modern intellectuals to shame. Orators could recite speeches hours in length; one exceptional orator even claimed to recall samples of scores of practice speeches offered by classmates decades before. Such memory was not the exclusive domain of the educated; uneducated oral storytellers could recite full works like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey from memory. To object to all such examples because this one is Greek, that one is late, and so forth, is to dismiss all extant evidence in favor of pure speculation. We should expect the material to have been preserved. Because Luke writes while eyewitnesses are still alive, and because they were accorded a place of prominence in the early *church, we may be confident that his traditions are reliable. (Eyewitness sources were accepted as the best.)

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1:3-4. Literary introductions often specified the purpose of the work (e.g., in Josephus’s Against Apion: “to teach all who wish to know the truth” about the Jewish people); here Luke wishes to provide “exact information” (“exact truth”—NASB; “certainty”—NIV). The subject matter specified here (“things fulfilled among us”) is appropriate for a historical preface. Luke had opportunity to acquire “thorough knowledge” of the subject during his travels with Paul hinted at in Acts (in ancient historical sources, “we” nearly always meant that the author was present). These travels included up to two years in Judea (Acts 21:17-18; 27:1).

Appeals to common knowledge were frequent in ancient *rhetoric, and Luke here appeals to Theophilus’s knowledge of the subject, which Luke merely confirms. That is, the bulk of Luke’s story reflects what was already widely known in the early Christian movement. Books would often open with a dedication to the wealthy *patron who sponsored the writing project. (Luke-Acts is not just a private work; Luke’s Gospel is within three percent of the length of Acts, both fitting a standard size of scroll for publication.) One could also dedicate a work to a person of status that one hoped would feel honored and therefore promote the work.

Theophilus, the name of the sponsor, was a common Jewish name. (Were it a symbolic name we could translate “lover of God,” but we know of no symbolic names in ancient dedications.) “Most excellent” could literally mark him as a member of a high class in Roman society (the equestrian order), although Luke might use the title only as a courtesy. A desire for verification was reasonable in view of the many competing claims to religious truth in the Roman Empire.

1:5-25 The Angel and the Priest After the much more classical Greek prologue of 1:1-4, here Luke establishes himself as a master of various literary styles by adapting to *Septuagint style, reflecting its Hebraic rhythms, which dominate chapters 1–2.

1:5. Historians customarily introduced a narrative by listing the names of reigning kings or governors, which provided the approximate time of the

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narrative. Herod the Great was officially king of Judea from 37 to 4 B.C.

Twenty-four “orders” (NRSV, GNT) or “divisions” (NIV, NASB) of priests (1 Chron 24:7-18, especially v. 10) took turns serving in the temple, two nonconsecutive weeks a year. Priests could marry any pure Israelite, but they often preferred daughters of priests (“daughters of Aaron”).

1:6. The terms Luke uses to describe Zechariah and Elizabeth are the same that the *Old Testament used for some other righteous people, such as Noah (Gen 6:9), Abraham (Gen 17:1) and Job (Job 1:1). One who reads those narratives understands that although they may not have been morally perfect (Gen 9:21) or complete (Job 42:3-6), they did not violate any stated commandments in the *law. Thus Luke uses these terms to challenge the misconception that could arise from conventional wisdom concerning barrenness (Lk 1:7).

1:7. To be childless was economically and socially disastrous: economically, because parents had no one to support them in old age (see comment on 1 Tim 5:4, 8); socially, because in the law barrenness was sometimes a judgment for sin, and many people assumed the worst possible cause of a problem. Most people assumed that barrenness was a defect of the wife, and Jewish teachers generally insisted that a man divorce a childless wife so he could procreate. “Aged” may suggest that they were over sixty (Mishnah Avot 5:21); age itself conferred some social status and was sometimes listed among qualifications or virtues.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, Zechariah and Elizabeth are clearly righteous (1:6; cf. Wisdom of Solomon 4:1), and the Jewish hearer would immediately think of righteous Abraham and Sarah, who was also barren. The Lord also opened the wombs of other matriarchs, Rachel and Rebekah, and those of Hannah and Samson’s mother; yet Elizabeth is especially like Sarah, who was not only infertile but also too old to bear.

1:8-9. There were many more priests and Levites than necessary (perhaps eighteen thousand) for any given function in the temple, so they were chosen for specific tasks by lot, during their appointed time of service (besides service on the three major festivals, they served about two weeks out of the year). Given the number of priests, a priest might get the opportunity in 1:9 only once in a lifetime; this would have been a special occasion for Zechariah.

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Incense offerings (Ex 30:7-8) had been standard in ancient Near Eastern temples, perhaps to quench the stench of burning flesh from the sacrifices in the closed buildings. This offering in the temple preceded the morning sacrifice and followed the evening sacrifice. It is said that the officer who ministered regularly in the temple signaled the time to begin the offering and then withdrew; the priest cast incense on this altar, prostrated himself and then withdrew himself—normally immediately (cf. 1:21).

1:10. The hours of morning and evening sacrifices were also the major public hours of prayer in the temple (cf. Acts 3:1). Except during a feast, most of the people praying there would be Jerusalemites; unable to enter the priestly sanctuary, they were presumably men in the Court of Israel, and some women outside that in the Court of Women.

1:11. The altar of incense was in the center of the priestly sanctuary, outside the holy of holies. Zechariah 3:1 reports an Old Testament apparition in the temple. There *Satan appears to the *high priest, standing at his right to accuse him; but the high priest stands before the angel of the Lord, who defends him and brings him a message of peace for his people.

1:12. People usually reacted with fear to angelic revelations in the Old Testament as well.

1:13. Angelic annunciations, often complete with names, also preceded some major births in the Old Testament (e.g., Gen 16:11; 17:19; Is 7:14). Childless people throughout the ancient world entreated deities for children.

1:14-15. The closest Old Testament parallel to Luke 1:15 is Judges 13:4-5, 7, where Samson, as a Nazirite from birth, is warned to abstain from strong drink (cf. Num 6:3-4). Cf. Luke 7:33. Ancient Judaism especially viewed the *Holy Spirit as the Spirit of *prophecy.

1:16-17. Elijah was to return before the day of the Lord, turning the father’s hearts to the children (Mal 4:5-6; cf. Sirach 48:10). Although later rabbis interpreted this event as Elijah, master of intricate legal questions, straightening out Israelite genealogies, the point in Malachi is probably familial reconciliation (cf. Mic 7:5-6). On “prepared for the Lord” see Luke 3:4. On coming in Elijah’s measure of the Spirit, cf. Elisha’s request for a “double portion” (the inheritance right of a firstborn son, but narrated with double signs; Sirach 48:12) of this in 2 Kings 2:9; although John claimed no miracles, he was a great prophet—for he was Jesus’ forerunner.

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1:18. Like Zechariah here, Abraham (Gen 15:8; cf. 17:17), Gideon (Judg 6:17, 36-40; 7:10-11) and others in the Old Testament (2 Kings 20:8; cf. Is 7:10-14) asked for signs in the face of astounding promises, but they were not punished. That Zechariah’s sign proves harsher to him (1:20) suggests only that this revelation is much greater than those which preceded it.

1:19. Although Judaism had developed quite a list of angelic names, the *New Testament names only the two who also appear in the Old Testament: Gabriel (Dan 8:16; 9:21) and Michael (Dan 10:13, 21; 12:1). These became the two most popular angels in contemporary Jewish lore, in which Gabriel was sent on many divine missions. Jewish literature typically portrayed the chief angels as before God’s throne.

1:20-21. Casting incense on the heated altar of incense normally took little time, after which the priest emerged immediately. The delay here may have troubled the crowds; perhaps they thought Zechariah had been disrespectful and struck dead, or that something else had gone wrong. If Zechariah’s offering had failed, their prayers were also in jeopardy.

1:22. The term here for “mute” can, but need not, include deafness. On such judgments for disobedience see, e.g., Genesis 19:11; on temporary speechlessness due to a shocking revelation, see Daniel 10:15; but see especially the silencing of a prophet until a sign was fulfilled in Ezekiel 24:27; 33:22.

1:23. Because his term of service was only two weeks a year, and he had no son to support him in his old age, Zechariah might have worked a small farm or done other work in the hill country of Judah. (Priests were supposed to be supported by others’ tithes, not by working the land, but high taxes on the poor and unfair practices by the priestly aristocracy— especially in the decades just prior to A.D. 66—combined to make it harder on less wealthy priests.)

1:24-25. Praise such as Elizabeth utters here was common among the barren whom God visited (Gen 21:6-7; 1 Sam 2:1-11) but especially recalls Rachel’s exultation, “God has removed my reproach!” (Gen 30:23).

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1:26-38 The Angel and the Girl Luke here contrasts the simple faith of a teenage girl, Mary, with the genuine but less profound faith of an aged priest, Zechariah (cf. the severer contrasts between Hannah and Eli in 1 Sam 1–2; though the story line is quite different, in both cases God uses a humble and obscure servant to bear an agent of revival to the coming generation). This section has parallels not only with *Old Testament birth annunciations but also with Old Testament call narratives: Mary was called to fill the office of Jesus’ mother. Because it was common for writers to include implicit or explicit comparisons between major figures in their works, some charts may be helpful. More parallels among figures appear later in Luke-Acts, but I start in table 1 with some obvious ones at the beginning of Luke’s work (borrowed from my Acts commentary).

1:26-27. Because Joseph was of David’s line and Jesus would be his legal son, Jesus could qualify as belonging to David’s royal house. In Judaism, “virgins” were young maidens, usually fourteen or younger. The term Luke uses here for “virgin” also indicates that she had not yet had sexual relations with a man (1:34-35). Nazareth in this period was an insignificant village; the early, highest estimates are sixteen hundred to two thousand inhabitants, with more recent, lower estimates of about five hundred. (One question is naturally how far into the countryside would still count as Nazareth.) On Gabriel, see comment on 1:19.

Table 1. Early Parallels in Luke

Zechariah in Luke 1:12-80 Mary in Luke 1:29–2:52

Luke 1:12: the vision’s recipient is troubled

Luke 1:29: the vision’s recipient is troubled

1:13: do not be afraid 1:30: do not be afraid

1:13: reason for miracle 1:30: reason for miracle

1:13: child’s name (John) 1:31: child’s name (Jesus)

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1:15: child will be great 1:32: child will be great

1:15: filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb 1:35: conceived through the Holy Spirit

1:16-17: mission 1:32-33: mission

1:18: question 1:34: question

1:19-20: proof or explanation 1:35-37: proof or explanation

1:20: Zechariah muted for unbelief 1:38, 45: Mary praised for faith

1:80: child grows 2:40, 52: child grows

Table 1 is adapted from Craig S. Keener, Acts: An Exegetical Commentary (4 vols.; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012–2014), 1:557.

1:28-29. God often encouraged his servants that he was “with” them (e.g., Jer 1:8). Greetings (like “hail”) were normal, but rank and status within society determined whom one should greet and with what words. As both a woman and a young person (perhaps twelve or fourteen years old) not yet married, Mary had virtually no social status. Neither the title (“favored” or “graced one”) nor the promise (“The Lord is with you”) was traditional in greetings, even had she been a person of status.

1:30. “Do not fear” (cf. 1:13) was also common in Old Testament revelations (e.g., Josh 1:9; Judg 6:23; Jer 1:8; Dan 10:12; cf. Gen 15:1). Mary here joins the list of those in the Bible who found favor before God (Gen 6:8; 19:16, 19; Ex 33:13).

1:31. This verse follows the typical Old Testament structure for a divine birth announcement and especially resembles Isaiah 7:14, the Immanuel promise (on which see Mt 1:23).

1:32-33. This language ultimately derives from 2 Samuel 7:12-16 and also identifies Mary’s future son with the “Mighty God” *Messiah of Isaiah 9:6-7 (“Mighty God” is clearly a divine title; cf. Is 10:21). On the eternal *kingdom, cf. also Daniel 2:44; 4:3; 6:26; 7:14.

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1:34-35. Jewish tradition used the language of “overshadowing” for God’s presence with his people (see comment on 13:34).

1:36-37. The point of 1:36-37 is that God, who acted for Elizabeth as he did for Sarah, could still do anything. On 1:37, cf. Genesis 18:14 (on Sarah having a child); Mary has more faith than her ancestor (Gen 18:12-15).

1:38. Mary expresses her submission to the Lord’s will in regular Old Testament terms for submission or acquiescence (e.g., 1 Sam 1:18; 25:41; 2 Sam 9:6, 11; 2 Kings 4:2; cf. Bel and Dragon 9; see especially 2 Sam 7:25).

1:39-56 Miracle Mothers Meet 1:39-40. The journey from Nazareth to the hill country of Judea may have taken three to five days, depending on the precise location of Elizabeth’s home. In view of bandits on the roads, young Mary’s journey was courageous, although she probaby found others, perhaps a caravan, with which to travel; otherwise her family may not have allowed her to go. Greetings were normally blessings meant to bestow peace, hence the response of verse 41.

1:41. Like dancing, leaping was an expression of joy (e.g., Wisdom of Solomon 19:9). Jewish people recognized that the fetus was able to sense and respond to stimuli. (Indeed, while occasionally suggesting that the fetus’s gender could be changed by prayer up until birth, some later rabbinic tradition also affirmed that infants could sin, sing and so forth in the womb.) Some pagan stories also told of babies dancing in their mother’s wombs or speaking in infancy, but pagans generally regarded these events as evil omens; here John’s activity is instead a result of his prenatal sensitivity to the prophetic Spirit. On the *Holy Spirit, see 1:15.

1:42-44. For praising one (here Jesus) indirectly through directly blessing another, see comment on Matthew 13:16-17 (cf. also, e.g., the *pseudepigraphic *2 Baruch 54:10-11).

1:45. Abraham also believed the promise of a son (Gen 15:6). 1:46-47. Verses 46-55 emphasize the exaltation of the poor and humble

and the casting down of the proud and wealthy. This emphasis of Mary’s song strongly resembles the praise song of Samuel’s mother, Hannah, in 1

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Samuel 2:1-10; Hannah celebrated when the Lord opened her barren womb. (Luke omits the imagery of military triumph that Hannah had applied to her rivalry with Peninnah.) The psalmist often speaks of “my soul”; to “glorify” the Lord is to praise him (Ps 34:2-3). Hebrew poetry commonly uses synonymous parallelism (in which a second line reiterates the statement of the first); thus “soul” and “spirit” are used interchangeably here, as often in Scripture; joy and praise are also linked (cf. Ps 33:1; 47:1; 95:2; 149:1-5).

Table 2 shows some possible echoes of Hannah’s song (borrowed from the introduction to my Acts commentary).

Table 2. Echoes of Hannah’s Song

1 Samuel 2:1–10 Luke 1:46–55

God exalts lowly (2:1, 4-5, 8) God exalts lowly (1:48, 52-53)

I rejoice in your salvation (2:1) I have rejoiced in God my savior (1:47)

No one holy like the Lord (2:2) Holy is his name (1:49)

Celebrating the humble exalted and the proud brought down (2:3-9)

Celebrating the humble exalted and the proud brought down (1:51-53)

Poor vs. rich (2:7-8) Rich empty-handed (1:53)

Hungry vs. full (2:5) Filled the hungry (1:53)

Poor displacing nobles (dynaston, 2:8) Brought down rulers (dynastas, 1:52) [same term]

Shift from personal deliverance to God’s anointed king (2:10)

Shift from personal deliverance to Israel’s deliverance (1:50)

Table 2 is adapted from Craig S. Keener, Acts: An Exegetical Commentary (4 vols.; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012–2014), 1:557.

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1:48. Ancient Mediterranean culture emphasized honor and reputation, even after death. The *Old Testament spoke of those who obeyed God, especially the prophets, as God’s servants. It also emphasized God’s exalting the humble and reveals the importance ancient culture placed on one’s honor and name enduring after one’s death.

1:49-50. In verse 50 Mary alludes to Psalm 103:17, which in context emphasizes God’s faithfulness, in spite of human frailty, to those who fear him.

1:51. This is the language of vindication through judgment; often in the Old Testament, God’s “arm” would save his people and “scatter” their (his) enemies. Mary weaves together the language of various psalms.

1:52-53. The principle that God exalts the humble and casts down the proud was common in the Old Testament (e.g., Prov 3:34; Is 2:11-12, 17; cf. Sirach 10:14). “Filling the hungry” comes from Psalm 107:9, where God helps those in distress, because he is merciful.

1:54-55. God had promised to be faithful to his people Israel forever, because of the eternal covenant he had made by oath with their ancestor Abraham (e.g., Deut 7:7-8). Israel is God’s “servant” in Isaiah 42–49 (cf. comment on Mt 12:15-18).

1:56. Although ancient texts sometimes speak of pregnancy as lasting ten months, it was known that it normally lasted nine; the three months mentioned here plus the six of verse 26 (and esp. v. 36) suggest that Mary was present long enough to see John’s birth.

1:57-66 The Birth of John This account lacks the *hagiographic details found in many Jewish birth stories of the period, especially those about Noah and Moses, where the baby illumined the room or (newborn Noah) spoke (or, in later *rabbis, babies were born circumcised).

1:57-58. Neighbors customarily joined in celebrations (cf. 15:6), and the birth—especially an unusual one like this one—and circumcision of a son in the family home (typically performed by the father in this period) were such occasions. Some later Jewish tradition even suggests that guests

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may have assembled every night from a boy’s birth to his circumcision. On the special cause for the celebration here, see comment on 1:7. Jewish people viewed sons as essential because they carried on the family line, although in practice they seem to have loved daughters no less.

1:59. The *law required that circumcisions be performed on the eighth day; this was a special event, and Jewish custom included a charge to raise the child according to biblical law. Jewish children had customarily been named at birth; the evidence for naming a child at circumcision is late, apart from this text. But Romans named infants eight or nine days after birth (for girls and boys, respectively), so it is very possible that many Jewish people this early named boys at their circumcision, as this text and later sources suggest. Zechariah’s muteness may have delayed the normal naming, but cf. 2:21.

1:60-62. Children were often named for grandfathers and sometimes for fathers. The father rather than the mother had ultimate say in the naming. Indeed, in Roman (but not Jewish) society, the father even had the legal right to decide whether the family would raise the child or throw the infant out on the trash heaps.

1:63. The writing tablet could be a wooden board coated with wax; one would inscribe the message on the wax surface. Priests could be educated.

1:64-66. Prophetic speechlessness and the restoration of speech once the *prophecy had been fulfilled are found also in Ezekiel 24:27; 29:21; 33:22.

1:67-80 Zechariah’s Prophecy In the *Old Testament only a fine line existed between inspired praise and prophecy (e.g., 1 Sam 10:5-6; 1 Chron 25:1-3), and often, as in Psalms, one could move from one to the other (46:1, 10; 91:1, 14).

1:67. The *Spirit of God was especially (though not exclusively) associated with prophecy in the Old Testament, and this perspective continued in various Jewish circles around the time of Jesus.

1:68. “Blessed be God” occurs in Old Testament praise (e.g., Ps 41:13; 72:18; 1 Chron 16:36; 2 Chron 6:4) and became a standard opening prayer

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for Jewish blessings. The prophets and later writers (cf. the *Dead Sea Scrolls) spoke of God visiting his people for redemption and judgment (see, e.g., the Greek translation of Ex 3:16; 13:19; Ezek 34:11). The use of “redeem” here compares this new event to when God saved his people from Egypt (cf. the cognate verb in Ex 6:6; 15:13; Deut 7:8); the prophets had promised future deliverance in a new exodus.

1:69. Because a horn could give an animal the victory in battle, it indicated strength. “Horn of salvation” parallels the meaning of “rock” and “strength” in Psalm 18:2 (also 2 Sam 22:3; cf. the linking of “horn” and “salvation” in Hannah’s song in 1 Sam 2:1). Thus the Davidic *Messiah would be their deliverer (cf. Ps 132:17). David often was called God’s servant (e.g., 2 Sam 3:18; 7:5, 8, 26).

1:70-75. God had promised salvation from their enemies in his covenant with Abraham and his descendants. The language here thoroughly reflects the Old Testament. Verse 71, for example, reflects Psalm 106:10 (God saving them from the hand of those who hated them), which in context applies to God redeeming his people from Egypt. “Holy covenant” (1:72) might evoke Daniel 11:28, 30 (though it is also a natural expression); God often would “remember” the covenant with the patriarchs (Ex 2:24; 6:5; Lev 26:42, 45; Ps 105:8-9), with Israel (Ps 106:45; 111:5; Ezek 16:60) or others (Gen 9:15-16). The “oath” God swore to Abraham evokes a range of texts (e.g., Gen 26:3; 50:24; Ex 6:8; 32:13; Deut 9:5; 29:13; 30:20; 1 Chron 16:16; Ps 105:9), especially Genesis 22:16-18 (including triumph over enemies and blessing of nations).

1:76. “Prepare his way” alludes to Isaiah 40:3 (predicting the herald of a new exodus) and probably also Malachi 3:1 (probably connected with Elijah in 4:5); cf. Luke 3:4-6; 7:27.

1:77. Future “salvation” in Isaiah includes deliverance from political oppressors; but, as here, it is predicated upon Israel’s restoration to divine favor through forgiveness.

1:78. “Sunrise” (NASB) or “rising sun” (NIV) could allude to God as the Sun of righteousness in Malachi 4:2 (cf. Ps 84:11), in the context of Elijah preparing the way (Mal 4:5-6). Some commentators have suggested a Greek play on words referring to the Messiah as both a “shoot” and a “star” in the Old Testament.

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1:79. Although Luke weaves in various allusions here as elsewhere in the chapter, Isaiah 9:2 is especially in view; the context of this passage is explicitly messianic (Is 9:6-7), and that context probably informs the reading of the virgin birth in Luke and Matthew (cf. Is 7:14; comment in Mt 1:23).

1:80. The summary statement is especially reminiscent of 1 Samuel 2:26 and 3:19 for the maturation of the prophet Samuel. The desert was the expected place for a new exodus and thus for the Messiah; some groups, seeking greater purity, withdrew from common Judaism into the desert. Whether John may have studied among such groups for a time is debated, although it is plausible if his aged parents died before he reached maturity (the *Essenes reportedly adopted children and trained them from age ten on). John’s later public ministry differed from their private withdrawal, however.

Ancient writers sometimes compared characters; Luke compares John here with Jesus in 2:40, 52. Such comparisons did not always denigrate the inferior person in the comparison; sometimes they chose a great person to illustrate that the one with whom he or she was compared was even greater. Luke repeatedly illustrates that Jesus is greater than John.

2:1-7 Journey to Bethlehem Tax censuses became irregular during the late Republic, but Augustus revived them. Governors adminstered them in their provinces (at first every five years, and then every twelve). By A.D. 6 wide-scale censuses were taken every fourteen years. A tax census instigated by the revered emperor Augustus initiates the contrast between Caesar’s earthly pomp and Christ’s heavenly glory in 2:1-14.

2:1. Censuses were important for evaluating taxation; they were generally conducted by provincial governors, so local governments probably did not implement Caesar’s decree in all regions simultaneously.

2:2. Scholars often dispute whether Quirinius was governor of Syria at this time. Quirinius was certainly governor of Syria during the much- remembered later census of A.D. 6, when Sepphoris and some Galilean

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patriots revolted against the tax census of that year. This passage seems to refer to an earlier census while Herod the Great was still king (before 4 B.C.); thus perhaps Luke’s “first census under Quirinius.”

Some commentators have suggested that Luke blended the two events (the well-known with the obscure) or that Quirinius was governor of Syria at the earlier time Luke describes as well as in A.D. 6, for which there is some (though currently incomplete) evidence. Historians dated events by naming current officials, so Quirinius may have been in office at the time without being associated with this census. The governor of Syria is mentioned because the Roman province of Syria included Palestine under its jurisdiction at this time.

2:3. Although Egyptian census records show that people had to return to their homes for a tax census, the home to which they returned was where they owned property, not simply where they were born (censuses registered persons according to property). Joseph thus must have still held property in Bethlehem; if the tax census of A.D. 6 is any indication, he might not have had to register for any property in Galilee.

2:4. Pottery samples suggest a recent migration of people from the Bethlehem area to Nazareth around this period, so Joseph and many other settlers in Galilee may have hailed from Judea. Joseph’s legal residence is apparently still Bethlehem, where he had been raised. Bethlehem was just under six miles (nine kilometers) south of Jerusalem (perhaps one reason David chose Jerusalem to begin with), hence easily reached after one traveled south to Jerusalem.

2:5. Betrothal provided most of the legal rights of marriage, but intercourse was forbidden; Joseph is courageous to take his pregnant betrothed with him, even if (as is possible) she is also a Bethlehemite who has to return to that town. Although tax laws in most of the empire required only the head of a household to appear, the province of Syria (then including Palestine) also taxed women; but this would apply only if she owned immoveable property. Joseph may simply wish to avoid leaving her alone this late in her pregnancy, especially if the circumstances of her pregnancy may have deprived her of other friends.

2:6-7. The “swaddling clothes” were long cloth strips used to keep babies’ limbs straight so they could grow properly (cf. Wisdom of Solomon

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7:4). Some advised using them for forty or (more often) sixty days; others advised removing them as soon as the baby’s limbs were firm. Midwives normally assisted at birth; especially because this was Mary’s first child, it is likely (though not explicit in the text) that a midwife would assist her. Jewish *law permitted midwives to travel a long distance even on the Sabbath to assist in delivery.

By the early second century A.D. even pagans in the area were reportedly widely aware of the tradition that Jesus was born in a cave used as a livestock shelter behind someone’s home, and they reported the site of this cave to the emperor Hadrian. (The story could have been adapted to fit a few *Gentile stories about deities born in caves, but its earliness lends some weight to its reliability.) The manger was a feeding trough for animals; sometimes these may have been built into the floor. The word traditionally translated “inn” probably means something more like “home” or “guest room”; whether because other relatives may have also been returning home for the census or for other reasons, it is easier for Mary to bear (or care for the child after birth) in the vacant cave outside.

2:8-20 The Real King’s Birth 2:8. Due to the proximity to Jerusalem, some scholars have suggested that the flocks here are the temple flocks raised for sacrifice. In any case, this *narrative would have challenged the values of many religious people, who despised shepherds (the earlier examples of Moses and David notwithstanding); shepherds’ work kept them from participation in the religious activities of their communities. More clearly, elites throughout the empire usually viewed contemporary shepherds negatively. Pasturing of flocks at night indicates that this was a warmer season, not winter (when they would graze more in the day); Christians may have later adopted December 25 as a time to celebrate Christmas in part to coopt a pagan Roman festival scheduled shortly before that time.

2:9. Angelic appearances, the revelation of God’s glory and consequent fear among the humans present were common in the *Old Testament when God was acting in history in special ways.

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2:10-12. For “Do not be afraid,” see comment on 1:13, 30. “Good news” could refer to the proclamation of God’s salvation (Is 52:7), but pagans applied it also to celebrations of the cult of the emperor among all people in the supposedly worldwide empire. They celebrated his birthday (pagans publicly celebrated deities’ birthdays) and hailed him “*Savior” and “Lord.” But Jesus’ birth in a lowly manger distinguishes the true king from the Roman emperor. For the “Lord Christ,” see *Psalms of Solomon 17:32 (a pre-Christian Jewish work). “Signs” are common in prophetic literature (e.g., Is 7:14; Ezek 12:11) and function as much to provoke and explain truth as to prove it. Jesus’ birth “to you” may evoke Isaiah 9:6.

2:13-14. This choir contrasts with the earthly choirs used in the worship of the emperor. The current emperor, Augustus, was praised for having inaugurated a worldwide peace. The inverted parallelism (God vs. people, and “in the highest” vs. “on earth”) suggests that “in the highest” means “among heaven’s angelic hosts.”

2:15-18. The shepherds probably checked the animal stables till they found the one with the baby; Bethlehem was not a large town by modern standards (although it was much larger than Nazareth).

2:19-20. Mary kept these matters in her mind as Jacob had his son Joseph’s revelations in Genesis 37:11 (for the idiom, cf., e.g., Ps 119:11; Prov 6:21; Wisdom of Solomon 8:17).

2:21-40 The Infant and His Witnesses 2:21. See comment on 1:57-59.

2:22-24. These verses refer to Exodus 13:2, 12 and Leviticus 12:8. Jesus’ parents fulfill the *law of Moses properly and piously. The particular sacrifice they offer indicates that they are poor (Lev 12:8). Following the custom, Mary would lay hands on the pigeons, then a priest would take them to the southwest corner of the altar, wringing one bird’s neck as a sin offering and burning the other as a whole burnt offering.

2:25-26. This encounter with Simeon no doubt cannot occur deeper in the temple than the Court of Women, since Mary is present. God’s future intervention for Israel was described as “consolation” or “comfort” (cf.,

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e.g., Is 49:13; 51:3; 52:9; 66:13). Early Judaism often associated the “*Holy Spirit” with *prophecy.

2:27-32. Simeon’s praise reflects Old Testament piety such as Genesis 46:30, and (in Lk 2:32) prophecies like Isaiah 42:6 and 49:6. For being willing to die once one has seen good, see Genesis 46:30; Tobit 11:9; for living to see God’s salvation, see Psalm 91:16. For seeing God’s salvation more generally, see Exodus 14:13; 2 Chronicles 20:17; Isaiah 52:10; cf. Luke 3:6.

2:33-35. Prophecies in Jewish and Greco-Roman tradition were often obscure, easier understood in hindsight than at the moment they were given. Simeon’s words may allude to the stumbling stone of Isaiah 8:14-15 and the anticipated *resurrection. The “sword” reflects either Mary suffering over Jesus’ pain or (as in the later part of the verse) her heart being bared, probably the former (a mother’s grief can symbolize a son’s suffering, e.g., Judg 5:28).

2:36. Although the Old Testament did include prophetesses, they were much less prominent than male prophets in the Jewish tradition of this period. The name “Anna” (Tobit 1:9) is the Hebrew name “Hannah” (1 Sam 1:2).

2:37-38. Jewish and Greco-Roman culture often viewed widows who never remarried as pious and faithful. One famous widow in Jewish tradition, Judith, was said to have lived as a widow till her death at 105. If one adds the two numbers given in the text here, seven and eighty-four (taking eighty-four as the length of Anna’s widowhood rather than her age), and she was married at the common age of fourteen, one could see her as about 105 also. But the number may refer to her age; or Luke might mean her age but retain ambiguity to allow an allusion to Judith. Scripture promised the redemption of God’s people (Is 52:3; Jer 31:11).

2:39-40. See comment on 1:80 and the allusion to Samuel.

2:41-52 The Boy in the Temple Where such information was available, ancient biographers would tell significant anecdotes about their subjects’ youth, sometimes about

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spectacular child prodigies (e.g., Cyrus, *Josephus). In 2:21-40, Jesus intrigued prophets; in 2:41-52, he intrigues teachers of the *law.

2:41. The law required an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem at Passover (Deut 16:16), although most Jewish people living far away could not come annually. Although Jewish teachers did not always require women’s attendance at the festivals, many women attended. This verse may be another allusion to Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:7 and 2:19.

2:42. “Twelve years old” would have been about one year before Jesus officially became an adult Israelite and accepted responsibility for fulfilling the law. (Although the official Jewish bar mitzvah ceremony may not have existed as early as Jesus’ day, its analogy to Roman coming-of-age rituals supports other evidence for an official entrance to adulthood around this age.)

2:43-45. Caravans, which afforded protection from robbers, were common on pilgrimages for the feasts in Jerusalem. (Indeed, Josephus even speaks of entire towns traveling for the feasts.) Traveling with a caravan, in which neighbors from their town would watch the community children together, Mary and Joseph might assume that the near-adult Jesus was with companions, especially if by now they had younger children to attend to. If we assume a pace of twenty miles per day (though perhaps slower, depending on transportation and the children), Nazareth would be a little over three days’ journey along the shortest route, so the other villagers were probably home by the time the parents found Jesus (2:46). Estimates of Jerusalem’s population vary widely; it may have been in the range of seventy to eighty thousand, making Jesus difficult to find without help.

2:46-47. Some Jewish teachers in this period reportedly conducted their classes in the temple courts; the famous *Hillel and *Shammai may have been two such teachers. Asking questions was used both in teaching and in learning, but it was important for learners to ask intelligent questions, as Jesus does. Teachers could answer questions with questions, and Jesus’ answers are also intelligent. Students might begin advanced training in their mid-teens; the teachers recognize Jesus as a prodigy.

2:48-51. Mothers were responsible for children at an earlier age, but the father would be responsible for the child’s education, certainly by this age. Early Judaism regarded the commandment to honor one’s father and mother as one of the most important in the law, and children not yet considered

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adults were to express this honoring in part by obedience. On Mary’s heart, see comment on 2:19.

2:52. See comment on 1:80; cf. Judith 16:23; for the wording, cf. also Proverbs 3:4, but especially 1 Sam 2:26.

3:1-6 Introduction of John 3:1-2. It was customary to begin historical *narratives by dating them according to the years of rulers and officials, when possible, both in Greco- Roman and *Old Testament historiography, and often in introducing prophetic oracles or books (e.g., Is 1:1; 6:1). Luke thus shows that John began preaching somewhere between September of A.D. 27 and October of A.D. 28 (or, less likely, the following year). Tiberius reigned as sole emperor from A.D. 14 to 37 but shared some power with Augustus from A.D. 13; Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great (see comment on 1:5), was tetrarch (governor) of Galilee from 4 B.C. to A.D. 39; Pontius *Pilate was in office from A.D. 26 to 36. Presumably Pilate was installed with the approval of Sejanus, the praetorian prefect who influenced most of Tiberius’s decisions at that point; although attested in an inscription and featuring prominently in Josephus and Philo, Pilate proved of little interest to Rome’s own historians except once—for his execution of Jesus. Philip of Trachonitis was son of Herod the Great and was married to Herodias’s daughter Salome (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 17.189; 18.137); he died in Tiberius’s twentieth year (Jewish Antiquities 18.106). Itureans were a pastoral tribe known for raiding others and initially difficult to control. Lysanias ruled Abilene (named for its leading town, Abila) but his territory, along with that of Philip, was later transferred to Agrippa (Jewish Antiquities 19.275; 20.138). On “Annas and Caiaphas,” see comment on John 18:13, 19.

3:3. Non-Jews who wished to convert to Judaism were required to immerse themselves in water to remove their impurity as *Gentiles; John requires this act of conversion even of Jews. See comment on Mark 1:5.

3:4-6. On the quotation, see Mark 1:3; Isaiah promised a new exodus in which God would again save his people Israel. Luke extends the quote to

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highlight more of Isaiah 40, possibly to conclude with seeing God’s salvation (cf. Lk 2:30) and probably also to include “all flesh/humanity” (cf. Acts 2:17, where Luke may look ahead to the welcoming of Gentiles).

3:7-20 John’s Preaching See comment on Matthew 3:7-12 for more details.

3:7. Vipers (e.g., the Nicander’s viper) were commonly believed to eat their way out of their mother’s womb; thus John’s calling the crowd “viper’s offspring” was even nastier than calling them “vipers.” (In a context where people valued their ancestry, as in 3:8, the image of parent- murder would be all the more relevant.) Serpents would flee a burning field.

3:8-9. Jewish people often believed that they were saved by virtue of their descent from Abraham, which constituted them the chosen people. The idea of raising people from stones appears in Greek mythology, but the metaphor of people like stones appears in a range of sources. John could be making a wordplay between the *Aramaic words for “children” and “stones.”

3:10-11. The poorest people (such as most people in Egypt, who were peasants) had only one outer tunic (though some had a nicer garment for special occasions). Peasants in Palestine may have been somewhat better off, but in any case, anyone with two tunics had more than necessary for life. “What shall we do?” occurs throughout Luke-Acts as a question about how to be saved.

3:12-13. *Tax gatherers sometimes collected extra money and kept the profit; although this practice was not legal, it was difficult to prevent. In rural Egypt, where we have the fullest evidence, they were known to even beat old ladies to discover where tax fugitives were; on occasion, an entire village would even relocate to escape tax collectors.

3:14. Some commentators think these “soldiers” are Jewish police, who accompanied tax gatherers, or Herodian mercenaries, but more likely these are the light auxiliary non-Jewish troops that Rome recruited from Syria. Although the large legions were stationed in Syria, not Palestine, some soldiers were stationed in the cohorts in Caesarea and the one in Jerusalem.

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Some may have traveled to hear (or investigate) John’s preaching. (The frequency of Roman soldiers’ illegal concubinage with native women indicates that soldiers did not all remain in their garrison at all times.) Jews were exempt from required military service due especially to their dietary laws.

Soldiers occasionally protested their wages, creating trouble with the government (e.g., the frontier mutiny of A.D. 14); they were known for extorting money from local people they intimidated or for falsely accusing them (see, e.g., the *papyri, *Apuleius).

3:15-17. On John’s messianic preaching, see comment on Matthew 3:11-12. The *Old Testament prophets had declared that in the end time the righteous would be endowed with the *Holy Spirit and that the wicked would be burned with fire. The Jewish people generally viewed the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of *prophecy, and some circles viewed the Spirit as a force that purified God’s people from unholiness. Winnowing was familiar to all Palestinian Jews, especially to the farmers: they would throw harvested wheat into the air, and the wind would separate the heavier grain from the lighter chaff. The chaff was useless for consumption and was normally burned. Some other writers also described the day of judgment as a harvest or the wicked as chaff (Is 17:13; Jer 13:24; 15:7; etc.). Because the same Greek (and Hebrew) word can mean both “spirit” and “wind,” the picture of wind and fire carries over from 3:16. That the fire is “unquenchable” points beyond the momentary burning of chaff to something far more horrible (Is 66:24).

3:18. On his “many other words,” see comment on Acts 2:40. 3:19-20. John’s preaching to Herod Antipas fits prophetic morality, but

Herod and his advisers may view it as political meddling, especially given the political cost of Herod’s illicit liaison with Herodias (see comment on Mk 6:17-20). Herod’s nemesis, a Nabatean king (Aretas IV), was particularly angry about the affair, and also found ethnic allies in Herod’s subject territory of Perea. Herod may thus have viewed John’s preaching in that region (Jn 3:23) as especially damaging.

In ancient Israel prophets normally enjoyed an immunity from persecution that was virtually unparalleled elsewhere in the ancient Near East (prophets of other nations rarely denounced living kings; at most they

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suggested more funds for their temples). The ancient world did treat the abuse of heralds as treachery worthy of death, and God’s prophets were his messengers (usually using the messenger formula “Thus says”). But some Israelite rulers did imprison (1 Kings 22:26-27; Jer 37–38) and seek to kill or silence them (1 Kings 13:4; 18:13; 19:2; 2 Kings 1:9; 6:31; 2 Chron 24:21; Jer 18:18, 23; 26:11, 20-23). John’s costly stand prefigures Jesus’ death at the hands of the authorities.

3:21-22 Jesus’ Sonship Declared Some Jewish tradition stressed that God communicated in this era by voices from heaven; many people believed that he no longer spoke by prophets, at least not as he once had. The prophetic ministry of John and the voice from heaven thus provide a dual witness to Jesus’ identity. Opened heavens could accompany heavenly revelations (see Ezek 1:1). See further comment on Mark 1:9-11.

3:23-38 Jesus’ Ancestry Greco-Roman biographers often included lists of ancestors, especially illustrious ancestors, when this was possible. Like Greco-Roman genealogies, but unlike Matthew and *Old Testament genealogies, Luke starts with the most recent names and works backward. This procedure enables him to end with “*Son of God” (cf. 1:35; 3:22; 4:3).

For more details on genealogies, see comment on Matthew 1:2-16. Scholars have proposed various explanations for the differences between the genealogies of Matthew and Luke, of which the following are most prominent: (1) one (probably Matthew) records the genealogy of Joseph, the other of Mary (given the preference for clan endogamy, both could derive from the house of David; both genealogies, however, attribute the line to “Joseph”); (2) one (probably Matthew, or his source) spiritualizes the genealogy rather than following it literally; (3) the lines of descent cross but

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are different because one list includes several adoptive lines through levirate marriages (Deut 25:5-10).

In Greek society, men often entered public service at the age of thirty; Levites’ service in the temple also began at thirty (cf. Num 4:3-47 et passim). Like a good Greek historian, Luke says “about thirty” (3:23) rather than stating an estimate as a definite number, as was more common in traditional Jewish historiography.

4:1-13 Tested in the Wilderness See comment on Matthew 4:1-11 for more details. Jesus here settles issues as good *rabbis did, by appeal to Scripture. But this text also shows that Jesus does not just use Scripture to accommodate contemporary views of its authority; he uses it as his authority and the final word on ethics even when dealing with a supracultural adversary. (It should go without saying that the original writer and hearers viewed the devil as a literal, personal being.)

The devil here appeals to contemporary models of power (such as magician or earthly *messiah) to define Jesus’ sonship; Jesus appeals to Scripture. The three texts from Deuteronomy (6:13, 16; 8:3) cited here (4:4, 8, 12) were commands given to Israel when Israel was tested in the wilderness; the starting context in Deuteronomy addressed God’s people led by him and tested in the wilderness for forty periods of time (Deut 8:2). Unlike Adam, another “son” of God, who sinned (3:38), Jesus overcomes the tests (cf. Gen 3).

4:1-2. Moses also fasted forty days and nights; Israel also was in the wilderness forty years. On fasting, see further comment on Acts 13:2-3.

4:3. The devil’s first test of Jesus is the sort of feat ancient thought attributed to magicians, who claimed to be able to transform themselves into animals and to transform other substances, like stones into bread.

4:4. Other Jewish circles (evident, e.g., in the *Dead Sea Scrolls and later rabbinic texts) also used the phrase “It has been written” to introduce Scripture. The context of Deuteronomy 8:3 involves God’s “son” Israel depending on God for provision (Deut 8:3-5).

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4:5-7. Most of early Judaism understood that the devil ruled the present age of human rebellion, but that ultimately God remained sovereign. The world did not technically belong to the devil (Dan 4:32), who owned human hearts and societies only as a usurper (acting through powers subordinate to God, e.g., Dan 10:13). The most he could do would be to make Jesus the political, military sort of Messiah most Jewish people who expected a Messiah were anticipating.

4:8. Deuteronomy 6:13, which Jesus cites, prohibits idolatry (Deut 6:14), a commandment anyone who worshiped the devil would obviously violate. It belongs to the broader context of Jesus’ earlier quotation (Deut 8:3).

4:9-11. The devil takes Jesus to a part of the temple overlooking a deep valley; a fall from there would have meant certain death. Later rabbis acknowledged that the devil and demons could handle Scripture expertly; here the devil cites Psalm 91:11-12 out of context, because 91:10 makes clear that God’s protection is for events that befall his servants, not an excuse to seek out such dangers to make God prove himself.

4:12. In contrast to the devil, Jesus approaches biblical texts with a greater sensitivity to their context. Continuing his citations from Deuteronomy, Jesus cites Deuteronomy 6:16, which refers to how the Israelites had tested God at Massah by refusing to accept that God was among them until he wrought a sign for them (Ex 17:7).

4:13. To most ancient readers, the devil’s departure would have implied at least his temporary defeat (cf. the *Testament of Job 27:6; Life of Adam and Eve 17:2-3, though of uncertain date).

4:14-30 Preaching in His Hometown Synagogue Luke, who follows the order of his sources quite meticulously (perhaps according to the pattern of biography he is using), departs from that order here (cf. Mk 6:1-6), because this section becomes programmatic for his *gospel. (Cf. Peter’s sermon in Acts 2, which analogously functions as programmatic for Acts.)

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That Jesus would quote Scripture against the devil (4:1-13) would hardly have disturbed his contemporaries; that he would use it to challenge traditions that his contemporaries believe are scriptural, however, enrages them. Insofar as first-century Jewish teachers may have been like second- and third-century rabbis, they officially welcomed debate, examining all views from the Scriptures. Nevertheless, most people also generally interpreted Scripture in such a way as to support views sanctioned by tradition (a frequent practice in many churches today).

4:14-15. Visiting rabbis were often given opportunities to teach; but Nazareth, a village of as few as five hundred inhabitants, already knew Jesus and would be less open to thinking about him in new ways.

4:16. Literacy varied from one place to another in antiquity, but many estimate that on average only ten percent of the population could read and write on any significant level. The percentage was higher in some urban areas, but reading knowledge of the Torah may have also been more available in Jewish Palestine. Many *Gentiles remarked how diligently the Jewish people taught their traditions in the *synagogues and to their children; they called them a “nation of philosophers.” (In contrast to most cultures today, a minimum of other material competed with it, making knowledge of Torah the primary area of expertise, and a briefer cultural “canon” than the Greeks enjoyed.) More would be able to recite lines of Torah from memory than to read and understand it, but Jesus here is able to read and expound. The people would have known that Jesus was devout and skilled in Hebrew from his previous readings in his hometown synagogue. In Jewish Palestine, respected teachers usually sat while expounding Scripture (Mt 5:1) but stood while reading it (although some reversed this custom).

4:17. Scholars debate when regular lectionary readings for the Law began in synagogues, but in this period readers were probably free to make their own selection from the prophets; still later, readers in the Prophets were even allowed to “skip” passages. The synagogue attendant (chazan— v. 20) may have chosen which book to read (different books of the *Old Testament were on different scrolls; Isaiah was so large that it required one large scroll by itself). “Opening” the book meant unrolling the Hebrew scroll from right to left to the desired place.

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4:18-19. Isaiah in this passage (61:1-2; cf. 58:6) seems to describe Israel’s future in terms of the year of Jubilee, or year of release, from Leviticus 25 (cf. esp. Lev 25:10); the *Dead Sea Scrolls read Isaiah 61 in this way. Some scholars have suggested that a recent Jubilee year may have made this text fresh in the minds of Jesus’ hearers; some other scholars dispute whether this even remained a current practice in mainstream Judaism. That Luke ends the quote on a note of salvation is probably intentional, but his readers who know Scripture well would know how the passage continues (speaking of judgment).

4:20. According to the most common Palestinian Jewish custom, respected teachers normally sat to expound Scripture. The synagogue attendant was presumably the chazan, the official responsible for the upkeep of the building, the scrolls and so forth; this position was eventually a paid one (but lower in authority than “rulers” of a synagogue); we need not assume something so formal in small Nazareth. Synagogues were probably less formal then than *churches or synagogues generally are today, so the attentiveness of those present is significant.

4:21-22. Immediacy (“today”; cf. 2:11; 19:5, 9; 23:43) will surprise Jesus’ hearers; the text Jesus reads is supposed to be fulfilled in the messianic era, and the inhabitants of Nazareth recognized neither a *Messiah nor a messianic era before them. Because they lived only four miles from Sepphoris, they were well aware of how the Romans had destroyed that Galilean capital after a messianic-style revolt in A.D. 6; that this region was thereafter cautious about messianic announcements is suggested by the fact that the rebuilt Sepphoris did not join in the later revolt of A.D. 66.

Writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls, who believed that they lived on the verge of the end time, often stressed the immediacy of biblical prophecies, applying descriptions of Nahum, Habakkuk and others to their own day. Interpreting the Bible this way was thus not in itself offensive to first- century Palestinian Jews; the offense was implying that God’s end-time activity had arrived in Jesus’ own ministry.

4:23-24. The tradition that Israel rejected its own prophets was strong in Judaism, which amplified the fewer reports of martyrdoms already in Scripture (e.g., Jer 26:23). Jeremiah was persecuted even by his own

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priestly town, Anathoth (Jer 1:1; 11:18-23). The proverb in 4:23 is attested in some form in Greek classical and medical literature, and some rabbis cited a similar *Aramaic proverb.

4:25-27. Jesus mentions the socially weak (widows) and marginalized (lepers) here, but the main point (a helpful foretaste for Luke’s second volume, Acts) is that non-Jews were the ones to accept two of the major signs prophets of the Old Testament (implicitly illustrating the principle in Luke 4:24). Sidon and Syria were among the particularly despised areas. The context of Naaman’s cure (2 Kings 5) also indicates that many lepers in Israel were not cured (2 Kings 7:3; these lepers were in Israelite Samaria; cf. Luke 17:16). Jesus’ point: Nazareth will not receive him, but non-Jews will. Elijah and Elisha are apt analogies for Jesus’ ministry, which included raising the dead and multiplying food (similar to what Elijah did for the widow of Zarephath) and healing lepers.

4:28-29. Under Roman rule, a mob could not legally execute capital punishment in Jewish Palestine; Jewish law, moreover, required trial and conviction before execution. The crowd is thus unusually angry—especially to attempt this execution on the sabbath (v. 16). Nazareth is situated on top a hill and, like many ancient cities it was set in the hill country, with plenty of jagged rocks and cliffs nearby. Somewhat later sources suggest that stoning ideally should begin with throwing the criminal over a cliff, then hurling rocks nearly the size of one’s head on top of the victim. One aimed for the chest first, but at such a distance one’s aim would not be particularly accurate.

4:30. Whether the Lord hides him (cf. Jer 36:26), his attitude silences them, or his townspeople suddenly realize what they are doing to one of their own, Jesus walks through the crowd unharmed—his hour had not yet come.

4:31-37 Preaching in Capernaum’s Synagogue A pericope about Jesus’ inhospitable reception in a house of prayer and study (4:14-30) is followed by his confrontation with a demoniac in one. Yet the people’s response in Capernaum, which by the second century A.D.

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had become a center for early Jewish Christianity, contrasts with that of Nazareth in 4:14-30. See comment on Mark 1:21-28.

4:31. Archaeologists have found the site of Capernaum’s synagogue. 4:32. Most teachers would try to expound the *law by explaining the

proper way to translate it or by appealing to their legal or *narrative traditions; Jesus goes beyond such practices.

4:33-34. *Demons were often associated with *magic, and magicians tried to subdue other spiritual forces by invoking their names; some think that the demon tries to ward off Jesus’ power in this way. (Magic also depended on its secrets not being divulged.) If the demon is trying to intimidate Jesus by threatening to subdue him in this way (“I know who you are” was used to subdue spiritual powers in some magical texts), as some scholars have suggested—his ploy does not work.

4:35-37. Among prominent methods ancient exorcists used to expel demons were the following: (1) scaring the demon out or making it too sick to stay—for example, by putting a smelly root up the possessed person’s nose in the hope that the demon would not be able to stand it—or (2) invoking the name of a higher spirit to get rid of the lower one. The people are amazed that Jesus can be effective by simply ordering the demons to leave.

4:38-44 Popularity Increases See comment on Mark 1:29-39 for more details.

4:38. Simon’s father-in-law had probably passed away, and Simon and his wife had taken her widowed mother into their home. Caring for one’s extended family—especially aged parents—was common.

4:39. Waiting on guests was an important element of hospitality normally assigned to the adult women of the household (most free families could not afford slaves).

4:40-41. The sabbath (4:31) ended Saturday at sundown. “As the sun was setting” indicates that the sabbath is ending; thus people could carry the sick to Jesus for healing (carrying was considered work, thus forbidden on the sabbath). Laying on hands had a rich symbolism in Jewish tradition

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(e.g., Gen 48:13-14; Num 27:23; Deut 34:9; see comment on Acts 6:6). Jesus could also heal without it if the people could believe (see Lk 7:6-9).

4:42-44. It was nearly impossible to find a place to be alone in ancient towns, with their narrow streets and sometimes (often in poorer places like Egypt) twenty people living in the common one-room houses. Many blocks in Capernaum consisted of four homes facing a common courtyard. Villages were also often close together, though one could find a place alone if one arose early enough (most people arose at dawn).

5:1-11 Fishers of People Like Moses’ experience as a shepherd, David’s as a commander and Joseph’s as an administrator, the background of these *disciples as fishermen can provide them a perspective that will help them for their new task.

5:1-2. The lake of Gennesaret is the lake of Galilee (locally called the “Sea” of Galilee). Non-Galileans (like Luke or Pliny) call it a “lake”; it was most often people of this region who called it Gennesaret (Josephus, Jewish War 3.463). Nets would collect things other than edible fish, thus requiring cleaning. Edible fish in the inland “Sea” of Galilee today include varieties of carp; *Josephus says that the lake of Galilee held several kinds of fish.

5:3. The shore of the lake would function acoustically like an amphitheater; withdrawing a little from the crowd and addressing them from the boat thus would have made Jesus much easier to hear.

5:4-5. Peter’s obedience is exemplary; a fisherman might trust a *rabbi’s teaching on religious matters but need not do so in his own field of expertise, fishing. The fishermen had labored with a casting net (see comment on Mt 4:18) or possibly a dragnet (see comment on Mt 13:47-50, where a precise term for a dragnet is used) at night, which should have caught them many more fish than Jesus’ instructions here. Some said that fish were most easily caught before sunrise (Pliny, Natural History 9.23.56, 58). Sources suggest that fish would stay deep during the day to avoid the sun, hence were more easily caught at night in the lake of Galilee; they would be sold in the morning (ahead of competitors).

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5:6. Ancient fishermen sometimes told stories of marvelous catches of fish; more importantly, Jesus’ multiplication of food and of creatures has *Old Testament precedent (e.g., food—Ex 16:13; 2 Kings 4:1-7, 42-44; creatures—Ex 8:6, 17, 24; 10:13; both—Num 11:31-32). The circular cast net, for use in shallow water, was about fifteen feet wide, tightly meshed, and had lead sinkers. The dragnet (Mt 13:47-48) was dragged between two boats that moved further apart, sweeping up fish in their path. Broken nets could ruin fishermen, unless they secured (often borrowed) money to repair them.

5:7. Because the overhead cost of equipment was high, fishermen often worked together in cooperatives; families would sometimes work together to increase their profits. Other fishing cooperatives are known from ancient Palestine, so it is not unusual for Simon and Andrew to be in business with the family of Zebedee (5:10). Men working from more than one boat could let down larger nets than those working from only one; fish could then be emptied onto the boat or the nets hauled ashore.

5:8-9. Moses, Gideon and Jeremiah were all overwhelmed by their initial calls; but Peter’s excuse is especially like Isaiah’s (Is 6:5) and fits Luke’s emphasis (Lk 5:20, 30-32; Acts 9:4).

5:10. “Fishers of people” could allude to two Old Testament texts (Jer 16:16; Hab 1:15), transforming an image of impending judgment into one of rescue from that judgment; but Jesus might simply transform their vocation as fishermen, as God made Moses and David “shepherds” of his people.

5:11. Even if they had a bad night (5:5), fishermen made a better income than most Galileans (most of whom were peasants), so leaving their job is an act of radical commitment that they would expect to adversely affect them economically. Commercial fishermen tended to be better off than rural peasants, and were considered strong and inured to the sun.

5:12-16 Cleansing a Leper See comment on Mark 1:40-45 for more details. Lepers were outcasts from society, and most nonlepers would not have wanted to touch them, even had

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Jewish *law permitted it. The Bible had prescribed particular sacrifices if someone’s leprosy were cured (Lev 14:1-32). By complying with these regulations, Jesus does nothing to violate the law or to offend the priests.

Teachers thought to perform miracles usually drew large followings, because many people were sick; the number of people who flocked to hot springs in Galilee that were thought to relieve ailments attests to the large numbers of people who suffered from various afflictions.

5:17-26 Healing a Paralytic For more details, see comment on Mark 2:1-12.

5:17. *Pharisees were apparently much more common in Jerusalem and Judea; thus probably more of the Galileans belonged to the other group Luke mentions, the teachers of the *law (cf. Mk 2:6). Larger Galilean villages would have had *scribes schooled in Jewish law, who could execute legal documents and train children in the law of Moses.

5:18-19. The average Capernaum home may have allowed only about fifty persons standing (the span of the largest excavated homes there is eighteen feet). One gained access to the roof by an outside staircase, so these men could reach it unimpeded. The roof of a single-story Palestinian home was sturdy enough to walk on but was normally made of branches and rushes laid over the roof’s beams and covered with dried mud; thus one could dig through it.

Luke changes this Palestinian roof structure to the flat roof of interlocking tiles more familiar to his own readers, as preachers today change details when retelling biblical stories to make them relevant to their hearers. For the same reason, Luke does not mention their digging through the roof (indeed, in one play by Aristophanes such an action might have caved in a Greek roof). (The Roman atrium in fact had an opening in the ceiling, though Luke, who mentions tiles, probably does not envision that.) The paralytic’s “bed” or “stretcher” would have been the mat on which he always lay.

5:20-21. Most Jews allowed that some of God’s representatives could speak on God’s behalf, but they recognized that only God could forgive

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sins. Technically and by the narrowest definition preserved in later rabbinic sources, “blasphemy” involved pronouncing the divine name or perhaps inviting people to follow other gods; less technically, it had to involve at least dishonoring God. Strictly speaking, therefore, these legal scholars would be mistaken in interpreting Jesus’ words as blasphemy, even by their own rules. They presumably employ the term more loosely, believing that Jesus dishonored God by usurping a divine role.

5:22-26. Some Jewish teachers accepted miracles as verification that a teacher was truly God’s representative; others did not regard miracles as sufficient proof if they disagreed with that teacher’s interpretation of Scripture.

5:27-32 Partying with Sinners See comment on Mark 2:13-17 for more details. In the *Old Testament, God instructed “sinners” in his way, i.e., the humble who knew their need (Ps 25:8-9).

5:27-28. Given the location of Capernaum, some think that Levi is a customs official for Herod Antipas. Whatever kind of tax collector he was, he probably had a good income and was not likely to get his job back once he left it, especially on such short notice.

5:29. Jesus’ invitation for Levi to follow him constituted a great honor, especially for one who would have normally been excluded from religious circles. That Levi should respond by throwing a party for him is not surprising; repaying honor was an important part of social life in antiquity, and Levi probably would feel honored to have a prominent rabbi in his house. Table fellowship indicated intimate relations among those who shared it, and given the nature of ancient banquets, it was natural for a well- to-do person to invite his (former) colleagues and also subordinates to a feast. The colleagues would be offended if not invited.

5:30. The *Pharisees (and the teachers belonging to their movement) were scrupulous about their special rules on eating and did not like to eat with less scrupulous people, especially people like *tax gatherers and sinners. Most people regarded tax gatherers as collaborators with the

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Romans, and nationalistic religious people despised them. Religious people also expected edifying conversation. Because the Pharisees here attack only Jesus’ table fellowship, we may infer that Jesus and his own *disciples conduct themselves properly otherwise (e.g., they would not get drunk), whether or not all of Levi’s other guests are doing the same.

5:31-39 Partying or Fasting? See comment on Mark 2:18-22. The *Old Testament also recognized that some practices or objects once appropriate in worship or commemoration could become no longer appropriate (2 Kings 18:4; Jer 3:16).

5:31-33. Although the Old Testament commanded many more feasts than fasts, fasting had become a widespread Jewish practice; Pharisees often fasted twice a week, at least during the dry season. Although *ascetic fasting was forbidden, many people probably did fast for ascetic reasons. Fasting was an important practice to join with prayer or penitence, so it would have been unusual for disciples (prospective rabbis) to have avoided it altogether. A teacher was regarded as responsible for the behavior of his disciples.

5:34-35. Wedding feasts involved seven days of festivity; one was not permitted to fast or engage in other acts of mourning or difficult labor during a wedding feast. Jesus makes an analogy about the similar inappropriateness of fasting in his own time.

5:36-38. Jesus uses two familiar facts to make his point. Older clothes had already shrunk from washing. Wine could be kept in either jars or wineskins; wineskins, unlike jars, would stretch. Old wineskins had already been stretched to capacity by wine fermenting within them; if they were then filled with unfermented wine, it would likewise expand, and the old wineskins, already stretched to the limit, would break. Watered-down wine was drunk with meals.

5:39. Although distillation had not yet been developed and wine could achieve only a certain level of alcoholic content, aged wine was generally preferred over fresh wine that had not yet begun to ferment (a proverb, e.g., Sirach 9:10; rabbinic sources). Jesus is probably indicating why the

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religious people are objecting to the joy of Jesus’ disciples: it is something new.

6:1-5 Lord of the Sabbath See Mark 2:23-28 for more details. Some scholars have suggested that “rubbing with their hands” (v. 1) by extension constituted threshing, a forbidden category of work on the sabbath. Although the *law of Moses was especially authoritative for Jewish legal experts, the *narratives of other parts of the *Old Testament sometimes illustrate principles of the law’s spirit taking precedence over its normal practice (e.g., 2 Chron 30:2- 3).

If Jesus could demonstrate his case from Scripture, his opponents technically could not prosecute him successfully, due to the variety of Palestinian Jewish views on how the sabbath was to be observed.

6:6-11 Lawful to Do Good See further comment on Mark 3:1-6.

6:6. The muscles and nerves of a “dried” or “withered” hand were inactive; thus the hand, smaller than usual, was incurably nonfunctional.

6:7-10. Again, Jesus does nothing to violate the *law; although some religious teachers opposed minor cures on the sabbath, “stretching out one’s hand” was not considered work, and no one could complain if God answered prayer on the sabbath. *Pharisees differed among themselves as to the propriety of “minor cures” on the sabbath.

6:11. Unintentional violations of the sabbath, or issues of disagreement about what constituted the sabbath (matters that were debated) were normally treated lightly (at most, with corporal punishment in a *synagogue). Capital punishment (Ex 31:14; 35:2) was thought appropriate only for those who willfully rejected the sabbath. Jesus’ opponents go far beyond conventional Pharisaic teachings here.

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6:12-16 Choosing the Twelve See comment on Mark 3:13-19.

6:12. Jesus may here follow a pattern in Moses’ ministry. Moses prayed on a mountainside, receiving instructions about helpers (Ex 19:24; 24:1-2; cf. 31:1-2) and successors (Num 27:15-23; cf. 20:23-29).

6:13-16. People often had a secondary name, sometimes a nickname, which may account for the slight differences among the Gospels’ lists of the Twelve, as well as for the distinguishing of two Simons, two Judases and the second James in the list (these names were common in the holy and in this period).

6:17-26 Blessings and Woes See comment on Matthew 5:3-12. Blessings and woes were a common literary form, especially in the *Old Testament and Judaism; here they may parallel the blessings and curses of the covenant given from the mountains in Deuteronomy 27–28. For the particular blessings and curses listed here, cf. perhaps Isaiah 65:13-16.

6:17-19. On this introduction to Luke’s Sermon on the Plain (or “level place”), see comment on Matthew 4:23-25.

6:20. God was near the lowly and broken but far from the proud (Ps 138:6), and showed special mercy to the poor (Ps 113:7-8; 140:12; Prov 14:31; 21:13; Is 1:17; 58:6-7; Zech 7:10). Some of Jesus’ *disciples who had not been economically poor became poor to follow him (see 18:28). Behind Luke’s “poor” and Matthew’s “poor in spirit” probably lies a particular *Aramaic term that means both. “The poor” had become a designation for the pious in some Jewish circles, because they were the oppressed who trusted solely in God. The piety of the poor was emphasized especially after the Roman general Pompey redistributed Jewish lands about a century before Jesus; like most other people in the ancient Mediterranean world, most Jewish people were poor. The Jewish people longed for the *kingdom.

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6:21. Being “filled” (sustained) was a hoped-for blessing of the messianic era. Hunger struck poor families in times of famine (the situation in rural Palestine was better than that of rural Egypt but worse than that of Corinth or Italy). Weeping was a sign of mourning or *repentance.

6:22-23. The Old Testament tradition that most true prophets suffered rejection was amplified further in Judaism, so Jesus’ hearers would have caught his point. The separation or ostracism here might allude to being officially put out of the *synagogue (cf. comment on Jn 9:22) but is probably meant more generally.

6:24-25. “Comfort” was a blessing of the messianic era (e.g., Is 40:1; cf. Lk 16:25). Most of Jesus’ hearers were poor, but Luke’s urban, Greco- Roman readership was probably better off (1:3-4); Luke pulls no punches for his own audience (cf. *1 Enoch 96:4-5). Laughter was often associated with scorn.

6:26. Greek philosophers, who often scoffed at the opinions of the masses, sometimes complained if the multitudes spoke well of them. But Jesus’ comparison with the prophets is even more appropriate; the burden of proof was always on prophets who told people what they wanted to hear (Jer 6:14; 28:8-9). Although the hearers often suspected some truth in the genuine prophets’ claims (Jer 21:1-2; 37:3; 42:2; cf. 1 Kings 22:27), false prophets were usually more popular (1 Kings 22:12-13; Jer 5:31; 23:13-14).

6:27-38 Treat Others Mercifully 6:27. The *Old Testament specifically commanded love of neighbor (Lev 19:18), but neither it nor Jewish sages commanded love of enemies (although many taught non retaliation and insisted on leaving vengeance to God).

6:28. Although Jesus (23:34) and his followers (Acts 7:60) practiced this rule of blessing and praying for enemies, prayers for vindication by vengeance were common in the Old Testament (2 Chron 24:22; Ps 137:7-9; Jer 15:15; cf. Rev 6:10) and in ancient execration (magical curse) texts.

6:29. The backhanded blow on the right cheek was the most grievous insult in the ancient Near East, punishable under law. Its purpose was not to

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shatter teeth but to insult, to challenge honor; a *disciple is not to jealously guard one’s honor (or perhaps to care what the insulter thinks). The clothing in the verse refers to the outer and inner cloak, respectively; the poorest of people (like the average peasant in Egypt) might have only one of each. Deprivation of both could leave one naked, a shameful state; thus here Jesus refers, probably in hyperbolic images, to absolute nonresistance on one’s own behalf.

6:30. Here Jesus may allude to beggars, quite common in the ancient East, and poorer people seeking loans. In Jewish Palestine, with its high work ethic, beggars were usually only those in genuine need, and most were unable to work; farmers generally sought loans to plant crops. Jewish society emphasized both charity and responsibility.

6:31. In its positive and especially its negative form (“Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you”; cf. Tobit 4:15; *Philo; *Letter of Aristeas 207), this was a common ethical saying in the ancient world.

6:32-33. Ideas like loving enemies and lending without hoping to receive again were unheard of, although many *Pharisees advocated peace with the Roman state (at least, tolerating enemies in some sense).

6:34-35. In the Roman world, interest rates ran high (in an extreme case, as high as forty-eight percent), but the Old Testament forbade usury, or charging interest. Because many Jewish creditors feared that they would lose their investment if they lent too near the seventh year (when the *law required cancellation of all debts), they stopped lending then, hurting the small farmers who needed to borrow for planting. Jewish teachers thus found a way to circumvent this law so the poor could borrow so long as they repaid. Jesus argues that this practice should not be necessary; those with resources should help those without, whether or not they would lose money by doing so.

Biblical laws about lending to the poor before the year of release (Deut 15:9; every seventh year debts were forgiven; cf. Lev 25) support Jesus’ principle here, but Jesus goes even farther in emphasizing unselfish giving. Although the law limited selfishness, Jesus looks to the heart of the law and advocates sacrifice for one’s neighbor. A good man’s “sons” were expected to exemplify their father’s character; thus God’s children should act like him.

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6:36. That human mercy should reflect God’s mercy became a common Jewish saying (e.g., the Letter of Aristeas 208; *rabbis). “Merciful” may reflect the same *Aramaic word translated “perfect” in Matthew 5:48.

6:37. “Judge,” “condemn” and “pardon” are all the language of the day of judgment, prefigured in God’s current reckonings with his people (e.g., on the Day of Atonement).

6:38. The image here is of a measuring container into which as much grain as possible is packed; it is then shaken to allow the grain to settle, and more is poured in till the container overflows. Pouring it “into the lap” refers to the fold in the garment used as a pocket or pouch. Because Jewish people sometimes used “they” as a way of avoiding God’s name, some suggest that “they will pour” (NASB) may mean that God will do it; or the idea may be that God will repay a person through others. The Old Testament often speaks of God judging people according to their ways (e.g., Is 65:7). Proverbs and other texts speak of God’s blessings toward the generous (e.g., Deut 15:10; Prov 19:17; 22:9; 28:8, 27).

6:39-45 True and False Teachers 6:39. Others also used this image of leading the blind. The point here is that one must learn the right way (6:40) and receive correction before seeking to teach others (6:41).

6:40. In ancient Judaism, the purpose of a *disciple’s training was to make him a competent teacher, or rabbi, in his own right. By definition, a disciple did not have more knowledge about the *law than his teacher.

6:41-42. Here Jesus uses *hyperbole, and the exaggeration would probably draw laughter—and thus attention—from Jesus’ hearers.

6:43-45. See 3:9. The principle was well known (e.g., Seneca, Epistles to Lucilius 87.25). Figs and grapes were often cultivated together and were two of the most common agricultural products in Palestine, often linked in *Old Testament texts. Thorns and thistles were always troublesome to farmers (cf., e.g., Gen 3:18; also Is 5:2, 4 LXX).

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6:46-49 Right and Wrong Foundations Jesus again uses the image of the day of judgment. The idea of ultimately being judged for hearing but not obeying was familiar (Ezek 33:32-33). But no Jewish teacher apart from Jesus claimed so much authority for his own words; such authority was reserved for the *law itself. Later rabbis told a very similar *parable, but whereas there the foundation was the Torah, here it is Jesus’ words.

Some commentators have suggested that “digging deep” (v. 48) implies that he built a cellar; although cellars were not uncommon in Palestinian houses, they were used more often in Greek architecture; cf. comment on 5:19. The passage may simply involve a deep foundation on the bedrock, however.

7:1-10 A Pagan’s Amazing Faith 7:1-2. The nearest Roman legion was stationed in Syria, but many auxiliaries, mostly recruited from Syria, were also stationed at Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast, with some in the Fortress Antonia in Jerusalem. They were not bound to their camps at all times, however, and after retirement some probably settled at various places in Palestine. Centurions commanded a “century” (i.e., 100), which in practice consisted of sixty to eighty troops. Centurions were the backbone of the Roman army, in charge of discipline. An inexpensive slave might cost a third of a soldier’s pay for a year, but centurions were paid far more.

7:3-5. Non-Jews who feared God and donated substantial sums to the Jewish community were well respected. Those requesting help often sought someone respected by the benefactor to intercede on the requester’s behalf. (This centurion may have also been able to intercede for their town with higher Roman officials if necessary.) Ancient Mediterranean culture stressed reciprocity; the elders now intercede on his behalf. Centurions’ salaries were roughly sixteen to seventeen times those of their troops (perhaps thirty to sixty times for the highest ranking centurions), but for this

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centurion to have built the local *synagogue might nevertheless represent years of savings. The main point lies in the contrasting views of worthiness (7:4, 6).

7:6. The centurion was not a full convert to Judaism and thus retained some of his uncleanness as a *Gentile, especially in regard to the food in his home. To invite a Jewish teacher into such a home would have been offensive under normal circumstances, but in this case the community’s elders want to make an exception (7:3), presumably because this Gentile home is not defiled by idolatry.

7:7. During their twenty or so years of service in the Roman army, soldiers were not permitted to marry. Many or most had “un official” local concubines; these unofficial marriages were often ratified after a soldier completed his term of service. But centurions, who could be moved around more frequently, could be less likely than ordinary soldiers to have such relationships; they sometimes married only after retirement. By ancient definitions, however, a household could include servants, and household servants and masters sometimes grew very close—especially if they made up the entire family unit.

7:8. The centurion demonstrates that he understands the principle of authority that Jesus exercises. Roman soldiers were very disciplined and except in rare times of mutiny followed orders carefully.

7:9. “Gentiles” were generally synonymous with pagans, with no faith in Israel’s God.

7:10. Some Jewish stories circulated about miracle workers, but reports of long-distance healings were rare and were viewed as more extraordinary than other miracles. Thus people would view this healing as especially miraculous.

7:11-17 Interrupting a Funeral Interrupting a funeral was a blatant breach of Jewish *law and custom; touching the bier exposed Jesus to a day’s uncleanness (Num 19:21-22); touching the corpse exposed him to a week’s uncleanness (cf. Num 5:2-3; 19:11-20). But in Jesus’ case, the influence goes in the other direction.

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7:11-12. People customarily dropped whatever they were doing and joined in the back of a funeral procession when it passed by. For a widow’s only son to die before she did was considered extremely tragic; it also left her dependent on public charity for support unless she had other means or relatives of means.

7:13. According to custom the bereaved mother would walk in front of the bier; Jesus, approaching from the front rather than behind, meets her first. Cf. 1 Kings 17:17-24.

7:14. By touching even the bier, a stretcher on which the body was borne (Jewish custom did not use a closed coffin), Jesus would be viewed as contracting corpse-uncleanness, the severest form of ritual impurity in Judaism (Num 19:11-20). Only those closest to the deceased were expected to expose themselves to this impurity. The young man had not been dead long, because it was necessary to wash, anoint, wrap, mourn over and then bury the body as quickly as possible to avoid the stench of decomposition.

7:15-17. God had used several earlier prophets (Elijah and Elisha) to resuscitate the dead (1 Kings 17:23; 2 Kings 4:36), but it was a rare miracle. The few pagan stories of resuscitations, especially from the third century A.D. (from Philostratus and *Apuleius), are later and not validated by eyewitnesses as the Gospel accounts are; they also often exhibit features missing here, such as reports from the underworld. The language of a prophet “among” his people (Lk 7:16) is an OT idiom (Num 12:6; Deut 13:1; 18:15, 18; Ezek 2:5).

7:18-23 Encouraging John 7:18-20. Ancient writers sometimes repeated a message twice (when the messengers heard it and when they delivered it). Some plausibly suggest that John is troubled that Jesus exposes himself to potential ritual uncleanness (e.g., with *Gentiles and corpses) for the sake of healings. More likely, Jesus’ words simply do not fit John’s picture of the coming one he had proclaimed in 3:15-17, although John has no doubt that Jesus is at least a prophet who will tell him the truth.

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7:21-23. Jesus’ answer makes use of language from Isaiah 35:5; these healings are signs of the messianic era. Some teachers compared the blind, lame and lepers to the dead because they had no hope of recovery.

7:24-35 Vindicating John John’s and Jesus’ styles of ministry differ; but both are valid, and the religious community rejects both equally.

7:24. Reeds were fragile (Is 42:3), so a “reed shaken by the wind” would be notoriously weak (1 Kings 14:15) and undependable (2 Kings 18:21; Ezek 29:6).

7:25-26. Prophets were rarely well-to-do, and in times of national wickedness they were forced to operate outside societal boundaries, including royal courts. Now imprisoned by Herod Antipas, John is no court prophet who simply tells powerful people what they want to hear. Antipas employed a reed (7:24) as an emblem on his coins a few years earlier (up until A.D. 26).

7:27. By fulfilling Mal 3:1, John is more than just any herald of God; he is the direct announcer of the Lord, who will act in a decisively new way by leading his people in a new exodus. (The new exodus, a return from captivity, is a theme in Isaiah.)

7:28. In *rhetoric and elsewhere, comparisons could demean the lesser figure, but often did not do so; sometimes speakers chose the lesser figure for comparison precisely because it was great, thereby amplifying all the more the greater figure. This comparison elevates Jesus’ *disciples rather than demeans John. One may compare the early rabbinic saying that Johanan ben Zakkai, one of the most respected scholars of the first century, was the “least” of *Hillel’s eighty disciples; this saying was not meant to diminish Johanan’s status but to increase that of his contemporaries and thus that of his teacher.

7:29-30. Because the once-for-all kind of *baptism was essentially reserved for pagans converting to Judaism, the religious people are unwilling to accept it for themselves. They questioned the religious commitment of less observant Jews, especially the *tax gatherers.

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7:31-32. The marketplace was the most public part of town. Spoiled children having make-believe weddings and funerals (one later game was called “bury the grasshopper”) represent Jesus’ and John’s dissatisfied opponents; unhappy with other children who would not play either game, they are upset no matter what.

7:33-34. John the Baptist fits the role of a more *ascetic prophet, like Elijah (cf. 1:14-15 for John’s abstention from wine); Jesus follows a model more like David, but both are proper in their place. *Demon possession (v. 33) was associated with madness (and sometimes with sorcery, hence a capital charge). “Glutton and drunkard” (v. 34) was a capital charge (Deut 21:20), hence a serious accusation.

7:35. Jewish tradition often personified Wisdom, usually as a holy woman exhorting the righteous to follow her; here she is the mother of the righteous.

7:36-50 The Pharisee and the Sinful Woman Jesus violated social taboos to reach out to those marginalized not only culturally (7:1-10), economically (7:11-17) and religiously (7:24-35) but also morally (7:36-50). Since the classical Greek period, banquets had become an occasional setting for moral instruction.

7:36. It was considered virtuous to invite a teacher over for dinner, especially if the teacher were from out of town or had just taught at the synagogue. That they are “reclining” rather than sitting indicates that they are using couches rather than chairs and that this is a banquet, perhaps in honor of the famous guest teacher.

7:37. Because this woman is a known “sinner” some think that she is a prostitute (surely a Jewish one—cf. *Psalms of Solomon 2:11—though many prostitutes in Palestine were non-Jews); given ancient stereotypes of women’s sins (she is presumably not a tax collector), at least she might be a woman with a reputation for being morally loose. Whatever the case, given associations of these ideas, when assigned to women, with particular behaviors, the Pharisee might suppose her to be seeking something disreputable. If the *Pharisee is well-to-do, he might have a servant as a

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porter to check visitors at the door; but the pious also sometimes opened their homes for the poor. In any case, the woman manages to get in. In banquets where uninvited people could enter, they were to remain quiet and away from the couches, observing the discussions of host and guests. Alabaster was considered the most appropriate container for perfume.

7:38. Jewish people did not consider perfume sinful, but because this woman is a “sinner” (7:37), they might assign special connotations to it, rendering Jesus’ acceptance of the gift offensive. That she stands “behind him” and anoints his feet instead of his head has to do with the posture of guests reclining on the couches; he would have reclined on his left arm, facing the host. His feet would have pointed away from the table toward the wall.

7:39. Adult women who were religious were expected to be married and thus would have their heads covered; a woman with her hair exposed to public view often would be considered promiscuous, at least by those with more conservative cultural values. That this woman wipes Jesus’ feet with her hair would thus indicate not only her humility but also her marginal religious and social status, even had Jesus not been a prophet and had she not been known in the community’s gossip. That the host allowed that Jesus might be a prophet at all suggests great respect, because many Jewish teachers believed that prophets ceased after the *Old Testament period.

7:40. “I have something to say” sometimes introduces blunt or harsh words in Middle Eastern idiom.

7:41-42. Gratitude was an emphatic obligation in Mediterranean antiquity. Some scholars have argued that *Aramaic lacks a term for gratitude, hence “Which will love him more?” rather than, as we might expect, “Which will be more grateful?” Although debts were to be forgiven in the seventh year, experts in the *law had found a way to get around that requirement. Those who could not pay could be imprisoned, temporarily enslaved or have certain goods confiscated; but this creditor goes beyond the letter of the law and extends mercy.

7:43-46. Common hospitality included providing water for the feet (though well-to-do householders left the washing to servants); the oft- invoked example of Abraham’s hospitality (Gen 18:4) would render the host without excuse. Oil for the dry skin on one’s head would also be a thoughtful act. A kiss was an affectionate or respectful form of greeting,

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commonly shown to respected teachers and others. Jesus faces the woman finally in verse 44; cf. comment on 7:38. Failing to provide such basic courtesies could appear to other guests as an affront, but guests rarely publicly confronted hosts no matter how inadequate the hospitality, for such public humiliation could invite enmity. Yet Jesus humiliates his host who had privately despised the grateful woman.

7:47-50. Although the priests could pronounce God’s forgiveness after a sin offering, Jesus pronounces forgiveness without the clear restitution of a sacrifice to God in the temple. This pronouncement contradicted Pharisaic ethics, and most of early Judaism would have seen it at best as marginal behavior. (One story in the *Dead Sea Scrolls is a rare exception to pronouncing forgiveness and accompanies an exorcism, but it does not seem to reflect general Jewish practice.)

8:1-3 The Women Disciples For the form of support mentioned here, cf. 2 Kings 4:42. Women sometimes served as *patrons, or supporters, of religious teachers or associations in the ancient Mediterranean. (Some estimate that men outnumbered them more than ten to one, because men had more of the economic resources; yet a tenth remained a large number.) But for these women to travel with the group would have been viewed as scandalous, at least by Jesus’ detractors. Apart from some small Greek philosophic schools, adult coeducation was unheard of, and that these women are learning Jesus’ teaching as closely as his male *disciples would surely bother some outsiders as well. Upper-class families had more mobility, but commoners might still talk. While a small number of philosophers had women disciples, many criticized this practice; we know of no other women disciples among Jewish teachers in this period. “Herod” here (8:3) is Herod Antipas.

8:4-15 The Sower, the Seed and the Soils

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See comment on Mark 4:3-20 for more details. 8:5-7. Seed was often sown before the ground was plowed; it thus

commonly befell any of the fates reported here. The “road” (NASB) is probably a “path” (NRSV), i.e., a foot path through the field.

8:8. Thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold are tremendously good harvests from Galilean soil.

8:9. Jewish teachers normally used *parables to illustrate and explain points, not to conceal them. But if one told stories without stating the point they were meant to illustrate, as Jesus does here, only those who listen most astutely and start with insiders’ knowledge could figure out one’s point.

8:10. Greek teachers like *Plato would leave some points obscure to keep them from outsiders; Jewish teachers would sometimes do the same (such as later *rabbis’ mystical teachings about creation or God’s throne). Thus only those who were serious enough to persevere would understand.

8:11-15. Many of Jesus’ hearers would be farmers who could relate well to these agricultural images; although Galilee (which was full of towns) was more urban than much of the empire, the majority of people worked the land. The tenant farmers who made up a large portion of the Roman Empire were also common in rural Galilee. Both Jewish and Greek sources, familiar with agrarian society, often use seeds in illustrations; Jewish sources could apply it to God’s word.

8:16-18 Accountability for the Word 8:16. Jesus is a master of the graphic illustrations in which Jewish teachers sought to excel: invisible light is pointless, and God wants people to receive the light of his Word. The lamps Jesus mentions were small clay lamps that had to be set on a stand to shed much light in a room; anything placed over the lamp would have extinguished it.

8:17-18. If the crowds do not obey what light they receive, they will never receive more. Others also observed that those who had something would obtain more.

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8:19-21 Jesus’ True Family Thinking of one’s coreligionists as brothers and sisters was common; respecting older persons as mothers or fathers was also widespread. But allowing ties with nonkin to take precedence even over family ties could prove offensive culturally (except for *Gentile converts). (One could treat a teacher as a father, and some even allowed according him greater respect, but not in the sort of radical ways taught by Jesus, as in 9:59-60.)

8:22-25 Master of Winds and Sea Some ancient stories told of powerful individuals able to subdue even the forces of nature, but these were nearly always gods or, less commonly, heroes of the distant past. In Jewish tradition, the one who ruled the winds and sea was God himself (Ps 107:29), though a few pious men were reputed to be able to persuade him to send rain. The surprise of the *disciples at Jesus’ power is thus easy to understand.

Storms often rose suddenly on the lake called the Sea of Galilee; these fishermen had usually stayed closer to Capernaum and are unprepared for a squall this far from shore. The only place one could sleep in a small fishing boat with water pouring in from a storm would be on the elevated stern, where one could use the wooden or leather-covered helmsman’s seat, or a pillow sometimes kept under that seat, as a cushion to rest one’s head.

8:26-39 Subduing the Demonic Legion See further comment on Mark 5:1-20.

8:26. Matthew’s “Gadara” (Mt 8:28), eight miles from the lake, and Gerasa, about thirty miles from the lake, were in the same general region, the area of the Decapolis, a predominantly non-Jewish area. Luke’s audience would recognize the area more easily by the better-known Gerasa.

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8:27. Jewish people considered tombs unclean and a popular haunt for unclean spirits. Many ancient cultures brought offerings for the dead, which might also be thought to appeal to these *demons.

8:28. In ancient *magic, one could try to gain control over a spirit by naming it. Any such attempt at magical self-protection is powerless against Jesus.

8:29. The strength that this demoniac displays is reported in some cases of spirit possession in various cultures today as well.

8:30-31. A legion had a nominal six thousand (in practice, often five thousand) troops. Although the number might be hyperbolic, this man is clearly hosting a large number of demons. According to Jewish traditions, many demons were imprisoned in the atmosphere, but they could also be imprisoned, as here, under the earth (in the “abyss”). Some sources from this period treat the abyss as a genuine geographic location (*1 Enoch 18:11-12; 83:4); the *Septuagint applies it to the “depths,” perhaps of the waters (Prov 3:20; 8:24).

8:32. Only *Gentiles or nonobservant Jews considered “apostates” raised pigs, which Jewish readers would consider among the most unclean animals and thus better hosts for evil spirits. Ancient exorcists found that demons sometimes asked for concessions if the pressure for them to evacuate their host became too great.

8:33. Some Jewish traditions taught that demons could die, so some ancient hearers might assume that the demons had been destroyed with their hosts. Perhaps more relevantly, in other Jewish traditions demons could be imprisoned in bodies of water; many hearers would thus have thought of them as at least disabled.

8:34-37. The opposition to Jesus arises from both economic causes— the loss of a large herd of swine—and certain Greek conceptions of dangerous wonderworking magicians, whom most people feared.

8:38-39. Perhaps because his *messiahship would be misunderstood, Jesus kept it a secret in predominantly Jewish areas (see the introduction to Mark). In the predominantly non-Jewish Decapolis, however, where people would wrongly perceive him as a magician, Jesus urges his new *disciple to spread the word about what God had done, thereby correcting the people’s misunderstanding.

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8:40-56 Death and the Flow of Blood See further comment on Mark 5:21-43.

8:40-41. “Rulers of the *synagogue” were usually the chief officials in synagogues (though especially in the *Diaspora this was also often an honorary title for large donors) and were prominent members of their communities.

8:42. The official’s daughter had been a minor until that year and on account of both her age and her gender had far less status than her prominent father (vv. 40-41).

8:43. This woman’s sickness was reckoned as if she had a menstrual period all month long; it made her continually unclean under the *law (Lev 15:19-33)—a social problem on top of the physical one. In a culture in which adult women who were not wealthy virtually needed to marry, she was almost certainly unmarried at this point (if she had ever been married), since it violated the law for a man to sleep with her in this condition. Just as Jewish interpreters linked texts by a common phrase, Luke’s source may use “twelve years” to emphasize the relatedness of these stories (vv. 42-43).

8:44-45. If she touched anyone or anyone’s clothes, she rendered that person ceremonially unclean for the rest of the day (cf. Lev 15:26-27). She therefore should not have even been in this heavy crowd. Conservative teachers avoided touching women altogether (other than their wives), lest they become accidentally contaminated. Thus this woman could not touch or be touched, was probably now divorced or had never married, and was marginal to the rest of Jewish society.

8:46-48. Jewish people generally believed that only the sages closest to God had supernatural knowledge. Jesus uses his supernatural knowledge to identify with the woman who had touched him—even though in the eyes of the public this would mean that he had contracted ritual uncleanness. Lest anyone be permitted to think that the healing had been accomplished by typical pagan *magic, operating without Jesus’ knowledge, he declares that it happened in response to “faith” (v. 48).

8:49. Many Jewish teachers held that once an event had occurred, it was too late to pray for its reversal. For example, later rabbis claimed that it was

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too late for one hearing a funeral procession to pray that it was not for a relative.

8:50-56. At least two or three professional mourners (two flute-players and a mourning woman) were required at the funeral of even the poorest person; the funeral for a member of a prominent family like this one would have many mourners. Because bodies decomposed rapidly in Palestine, mourners had to be assembled as quickly as possible, and they had gathered before word even reached Jairus that his daughter had died.

9:1-6 Authorizing the Twelve 9:1-2. Delegating authority was intelligible in antiquity. According to Jewish custom, for example, a sender could authorize messengers to act with his full legal authority to the extent of the commission given them.

9:3. Jesus instructs the *disciples to travel light, like some other groups: (1) peasants, who often had only one cloak (but did not often travel); (2) homeless urban Greek philosophers called *Cynics; (3) most relevantly, some prophets, like Elijah and John the Baptist. They are to be totally committed to their mission, not tied down with worldly concerns. Cynics used the “bag” for begging, presumably here prohibited.

9:4. Jewish travelers depended on hospitality, which fellow Jews customarily extended to them.

9:5-6. “Shaking the dust off” may mean treating these Jewish cities as if they are unclean, pagan cities, no defiling dust of which a particularly pious Jew would want to bring into the Holy Land. A place like the temple was so holy that those entering would (at least in pious theory) not want the dust of the rest of Israel on their feet.

9:7-9 John Returned? Although a few Jews influenced by *Plato and other sources accepted reincarnation, most Palestinian Jews believed in bodily *resurrection. The

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idea here, however, is probably like the temporary resuscitations Elijah and Elisha performed in the *Old Testament (1 Kings 17:22; 2 Kings 4:34-35) rather than the permanent resurrection anticipated at the end of the age (Dan 12:2). Herod the tetrarch was a son of Herod the Great; the latter had been king when Jesus was born.

9:10-17 Mass Feeding 9:10-12. Bethsaida was probably associated with fishing, and was located on the northern shore of the Lake of Galilee; some scholars suggest two sites with this name, but the matter is disputed. In any case, the *narrative seems to suggest that Jesus took the crowds beyond Bethsaida itself. The Galilean countryside was full of villages, but Jesus had withdrawn his followers some distance from the nearest villages. Even most larger towns would have under three thousand inhabitants; feeding the crowd in the villages would have been difficult (9:12). The known Bethsaida was ethnically mixed and not far from the region of the Decapolis. If they were further in largely *Gentile territory, hospitality would be even harder to find.

9:13. It would normally have taken far more than two hundred days of an average person’s wages (around seven months of hard labor) to feed the great multitude that had assembled, even if we assumed that only five thousand persons were present.

9:14. The people are organized in ranks like armies. The purpose is to facilitate the distribution of food, but some people in the crowd may have thought that Jesus was organizing them as ranks for a messianic army (cf. Jn 6:15).

9:15. People generally reclined at banquets and sat for regular meals. 9:16. It was customary to begin a meal by giving thanks for the bread

and then dividing it. A prayer like the common one attested by the second century, “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, who have brought bread from the earth” may have already been common. (Later sources indicate that people also gave thanks less formally after a meal, but it is not clear

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whether this practice was this early.) People often prayed “looking toward heaven” (1 Kings 8:22, 54; Jn 17:1).

9:17. The multiplication of food is reminiscent of the miracle of God supplying manna for Israel in the wilderness, and especially of Elisha multiplying food (2 Kings 4:42-44, where some was also left over).

9:18-27 The Cost of Following the Real Messiah 9:18-19. Because many Palestinian Jews believed that prophets in the *Old Testament sense had ceased, ranking Jesus among the prophets would have been radical—but it was not radical enough to grasp his true identity.

9:20-21. There were many different views of the *Messiah (or messiahs) in Jesus’ time, but they all revolved around a deliverance on earth and an earthly kingdom.

9:22. The *New Testament writers took some Old Testament texts as referring to the Messiah’s suffering, but most Jewish people in the first century did not recognize these texts as referring to the Messiah, who was to reign as king. Most Jewish people believed in the *resurrection of all the righteous dead at the end of the age and the inauguration of a *kingdom under God’s appointed ruler afterward.

9:23-25. The cross was an instrument of violent and painful execution. To “take the cross” was to carry the horizontal beam (the patibulum) of the cross out to the site of execution, usually past a jeering mob. In *rhetorically strong terms, Jesus describes what all true *disciples must be ready for: if they follow him, they must be ready to face literal scorn on the road to eventual martyrdom, for they must follow to the cross. “Come after” was often the language of discipleship, since disciples followed their teachers; here disciples follow to the cross, reminding themselves each day that their lives are forfeit.

9:26. “*Son of Man” here may refer to Daniel 7:13-14. The kingdom for which the disciples are hoping will ultimately come; but it will be preceded by a period of great suffering and wickedness. Many others in Jesus’ day taught that great suffering and sin would precede the kingdom; but Peter and his colleagues expected the kingdom to come without

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suffering (perhaps, as some believed, by a supernatural, costless triumph)— at least for Messiah’s followers.

9:27. Most Jewish people prayed daily for the establishment of God’s kingdom. The future glory of the preceding verses is anticipated by way of a revelation of the glory they would experience in 9:32-35.

9:28-36 A Taste of Future Glory God had revealed his glory to Moses on Mount Sinai, and Moses had come down from the mountain reflecting God’s glory (Ex 32–34).

9:28. God revealed his glory to Moses on a mountain (see comment above).

9:29. Jewish literature often described angels and other heavenly beings as being clothed in white. Some suggest that Luke omits Mark’s “transfigured” because of the pagan connotations this term could have for his audience (Greek gods and magicians transformed themselves into other forms, though Mark, like Luke, was alluding to Moses, not to magicians).

9:30. Elijah apparently never died (2 Kings 2:11; Mal 4:5; Jewish tradition); Moses was buried by God himself (Deut 34:6), and some (unbiblical) Jewish traditions even claimed that Moses was still alive (cf. comment on Rev 11:6). Both these figures were expected to return in some sense before the time of the end.

9:31. Jesus’ departure here is literally his “exodus.” Although this term was a natural way to describe death (Wisdom of Solomon 7:6), some suggest that it might also represent a wordplay allusion here to Israel’s future salvation, which the prophets and later Jews often viewed as a new exodus.

9:32-33. Peter’s suggestion of erecting shelters on the mountain may allude to Israel’s tabernacles in the wilderness, by which the Israelites recognized God’s presence among them in Moses’ day. Israelites annually built tabernacles, or booths, so Peter knew how to build one.

9:34-36. Cf. the cloud of God’s presence, especially on Mount Sinai (Ex 24:15-16). In this context, “hear him” might refer to Deuteronomy 18:15,

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where the Israelites were warned to heed the “prophet like Moses,” the new Moses who would come.

9:37-43a Delivering a Demoniac 9:37-38. An only son was extremely important to a father in this culture, for social, economic (support in old age) and hereditary reasons (including the passing on of one’s ancestral line).

9:39. The possessed person’s lack of control over his own motor responses parallels examples of spirit possession in many cultures through history and is attested in anthropological studies of spirit possession today. Greek medical texts mention “foam” in connection with epileptic seizures, the symptoms of which are in this case (but not always—Mt 4:24) caused by demonic possession.

9:40-41. *Disciples were expected to learn from their teacher’s example. Jesus’ response presupposes that he expected his disciples to have enough faith to work miracles as he did. Some ancient Jewish teachers were seen as miracle workers, but not often did they expect their disciples to be able to do miracles also.

9:42-43a. Exorcists normally tried to subdue *demons by incantations, often invoking higher spirits, or by using smelly roots. Jesus here uses only his command, thereby showing his great authority.

9:43b-50 Qualifying Misconceptions of Glory 9:43b-45. The glory on the mountain and Jesus’ power over *demons would confirm the disciples’ messianic suspicions (9:20), so Jesus needs to reemphasize his definition of the messianic mission in contrast to theirs (see 9:22). Most Jews did not expect the *Messiah’s death.

9:46-48. Status was a preeminent concern in ancient society; children had none. But in Jewish custom messengers bore the full authorization of the one they represented (see comment on 9:1-2), so Jesus’ agents did not

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need worldly status. Representatives of someone who had great authority exercised more authority than others who acted on their own.

9:49-50. Ancient exorcists often invoked more powerful spirits to drive out lesser ones. If this exorcist is genuinely effective (contrast Acts 19:15- 16), he is probably on their side.

9:51-56 Jerusalem via Samaria 9:51. This is a turning point in the plot movement, as in Acts 19:21. Like modern writers, skilled ancient writers often gave signals of plot movement. “Setting one’s face” normally implied resolute determination, such as a prophet would display (cf. Ezek 21:2; in Ezekiel the language normally implies a hostile position, but the idiom need not always imply that).

9:52. Galilean pilgrims to the Passover feast in Jerusalem often took the short route through Samaria, although some took a longer route around it. But this verse suggests that Jesus sought accommodations there, which would have offended many pious *Pharisees and most Jewish nationalists.

9:53. Even before John Hyrcanus, a Jewish king, had destroyed the *Samaritan temple in the second century B.C., Samaritans and Jews had detested one another’s holy sites. The extant version of the Samaritan Pentateuch specifies the proper site of worship as Mount Gerizim. Samaritans later tried to defile the Jerusalem temple (avenging a Jewish king having destroyed the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim in the second century B.C.). They were also known to heckle pilgrims to Jerusalem, a practice that occasionally led to violence.

9:54. James and John want to call down fire from heaven as Elijah had done on the altar on Mount Carmel and when two companies of troops came against him (1 Kings 18:38; 2 Kings 1:10, 12). Elijah did this under much severer circumstances than Jesus faces here; all three cases were life- threatening, and his opponents at Carmel had been responsible for the martyrdom of most of his disciples. Jesus uses the model of Elijah elsewhere even in this context (e.g., Lk 9:61-62), but not in this respect.

9:55-56. Ancient audiences (even those that hated Samaritans) did appreciate those who exercised their power with mercy. Ancient Jewish

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hearers could view Jesus’ merciful restraint as pious (1 Sam 11:13; 2 Sam 19:22), even if they hated the Samaritans.

9:57-62 True Discipleship 9:57-58. *Disciples usually sought out their own teachers. Some radical philosophers who eschewed possessions sought to repulse prospective disciples with enormous demands, for the purpose of testing them and acquiring the most worthy. Many Palestinian Jews were poor, but few were homeless; Jesus had mostly given up even home to travel and is completely dependent on the hospitality and support of others.

9:59-60. Family members would not be outside talking with *rabbis during the mourning period, the week immediately following the death. The initial burial took place shortly after a person’s decease, and would have already occurred by the time this man would be speaking with Jesus. But a year after the first burial, after the flesh had rotted off the bones, the son would return to rebury the bones in a special box in a slot in the tomb wall. Thus the son here could be asking for as much as a year’s delay. Others note that in some Semitic languages, “wait until I bury my father” is a way of asking for delay until one may complete one’s filial obligations, even if the father is not yet dead.

Even on these interpretations, however, Jesus’ demand is significant; while not highlighting urgency the way that 9:61-62 would, it would still underline the priority of following Jesus. One of an eldest son’s most important responsibilities was his father’s burial. Jesus’ demand that the son place Jesus above this responsibility could thus sound subversive: in Jewish tradition, honoring father and mother was one of the greatest commandments, and to follow Jesus in such a radical way would seem to break this commandment. Some sages might demand greater honor than parents in principle, but neglecting a father’s burial in practice would make this son a reproach in his village, perhaps for the rest of his life.

9:61-62. One needed to keep one’s eyes on the path of the plow to keep its furrow from becoming crooked. The hand-held plow was light and wooden and often had an iron point.

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When Elijah found Elisha plowing, he called him to follow but allowed him first to bid farewell to his family (1 Kings 19:19-21). Jesus’ call here is more radical than that of a radical prophet.

10:1-16 Authorizing the Seventy(-two) 10:1. If Jesus chose twelve *disciples to represent the twelve tribes of Israel, he may have chosen the number of this larger group to represent the seventy (sometimes seventy-two) nations of Jewish tradition, prefiguring the mission to the *Gentiles. (Some Greek manuscripts here read seventy, others read seventy-two.) Cf. also the seventy prophetically endowed elders of Numbers 11:24-25, plus Eldad and Medad (Num 11:26).

Heralds were generally sent “two by two.” The term for “send” might suggest that Luke views them as *apostles similar to the Twelve (see comment on 9:1-2; cf. 1 Cor 15:5-7), though even in Acts Luke usually restricts the noun to the Twelve.

10:2. A *rabbi of the late first to early second century made a statement similar to Jesus’ here, referring to training people in the *law; the urgency of harvesting while the fields are ripe was a natural image to first-century farmers.

10:3. Jewish people sometimes viewed themselves (Israel) as sheep among wolves (the Gentiles). The image of a lamb among wolves was proverbial for defenselessness.

10:4. These apostles are to travel light, like some other groups; cf. comment on 9:3. *Essenes reportedly received such hospitality from fellow Essenes in various cities that they did not need to take provisions when they traveled. Greeting no one on the way indicates the urgency of their prophetic mission representing God and not themselves (cf. 1 Kings 13:9- 10; 2 Kings 4:29; 9:3); it was offensive to withhold greetings, and pious people tried to be the first to greet an approaching person of higher rank. (Jewish teachers agreed, however, that one should not interrupt religious duties like prayer in order to greet someone.)

10:5-9. Hospitality to travelers was a crucial virtue of Mediterranean antiquity, especially in Judaism. To whom and under what circumstances

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greetings should be given were important issues of social protocol, because the greeting, “Peace,” was a blessing (an implicit prayer to God on the addressee’s behalf) meant to communicate peace and well-being, though it was here conditional (cf. Prov 26:2). Jesus cuts through such protocol with new directives.

10:10-11. Pious Jewish people returning to holy ground would not want so much as the dust of pagan territory clinging to their sandals (cf. 10:12).

10:12. Both the biblical prophets and subsequent Jewish tradition set forth Sodom as the epitome of sinfulness (e.g., Is 13:19; Jer 50:40; Zeph 2:9), sometimes applying the image to Israel (e.g., Deut 32:32; Is 1:9; 3:9; Jer 23:14; Lam 4:6; Ezek 16:46; Amos 4:11). The particular sin that Jesus mentions here is probably rejection of God’s messengers, albeit lesser ones than Jesus (cf. Gen 19).

10:13. Jewish people thought of Tyre and Sidon as purely pagan cities (cf. 1 Kings 16:31), but those who were exposed to the truth had been known to repent (1 Kings 17:9-24). “Sackcloth and ashes” were characteristic of mourning, which sometimes expressed *repentance.

10:14. According to some Jewish stories about the time of the end (“the day of judgment,” as it was often called), the righteous among the nations would testify against the rest of their people, making it clear that no one had any excuse to reject the truth about God.

10:15. Jewish literature often described judgment in terms similar to those Jesus uses here (Is 5:14; *Jubilees 24:31), especially against a ruler who exalted himself as a deity (e.g., the reference to the Babylonian king’s death in Is 14:14-15).

10:16. See comment on 9:48.

10:17-24 The Real Cause for Joy 10:17. Exorcists usually had to employ various incantations to persuade *demons to leave; thus the *disciples are amazed at the immediate efficacy of Jesus’ name.

10:18. Although the texts often cited today as describing *Satan’s fall (Is 14; Ezek 28) refer contextually only to kings who thought they were

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gods, much of Jewish tradition believed that angels had fallen (based especially on Gen 6:1-3).

But the context and the imperfect tense of the Greek verb (“I was watching”) might suggest that something different is in view here (although it could draw on the same image): the self-proclaimed ruler of this age (Lk 4:6) retreating from his position before Jesus’ representatives. (One might compare, e.g., the Jewish tradition that the guardian angel of Egypt fell into the sea when God smote the Egyptians for Israel; the image of falling from heaven is usually not literal, e.g., Lam 2:1; in this context, cf. Lk 10:15.)

10:19. The protection Jesus promises is similar to that which God had sometimes promised in the *Old Testament (cf. Deut 8:15; Ps 91:13; for scorpions as a metaphor for human obstacles to one’s call, see Ezek 2:6). Occasionally some associated serpents with Satan, demons or *magic; they provide a natural metaphor for danger (cf. a real snake in Acts 28:3-4).

10:20. The book containing the name of the righteous in heaven was a common image in Jewish literature (e.g., Jubilees; *1 Enoch), with ample Old Testament precedent (Ex 32:32; Is 4:3; Dan 12:1; Mal 3:16; perhaps Ps 56:8; 139:16; Jer 17:3).

10:21. Jesus’ words here could have sounded offensive to people like the *scribes, who had worked hard to study the *law. The theme of God exalting the lowly is, however, common in the Old Testament prophets.

10:22. Jewish texts did speak of unique mediators of revelation (e.g., Moses), but in this period the role here ascribed to the Son as the sole revealer of the Father and as the content of the Father’s revelation is held in Jewish texts only by Wisdom, personified as a divine power second only to God.

10:23-24. Some Jewish texts describe how the righteous in the Old Testament longed to see the era of messianic redemption and a fuller revelation of God. Making a statement about someone (here, Jesus) by blessing someone else (here, those who saw him) was an accepted *rhetorical technique of the day.

10:25-37 Loving One’s Neighbor

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10:25. As this *law-expert would know, students normally sat to listen to teachers, but might stand to ask a question or (normally only for non- students) to issue a challenge. The lawyer’s question about inheriting *eternal life was a common Jewish theological question, and legal and other challenges to *rabbis were common in ancient rabbinic debate.

10:26. Teachers often responded to questions with counterquestions. “How do you read?” was a fairly standard rabbinic question.

10:27. The legal expert offers the sort of answers sometimes given by Jewish teachers (and by Jesus; see Mk 12:29-31). Rabbis often linked texts using a common word (here “you shall love” in Deut 6:5 and Lev 19:18).

10:28. Some texts in the law promised life for those who kept the law. This “life” meant long life on the land the Lord had given them (Lev 18:5; Deut 4:1, 40; 8:1; 16:20; 30:6, 16-20), but many later Jewish interpreters read it as a promise of eternal life. Jesus applies the principle to eternal life as well (cf. v. 25). “You have answered rightly” serves aptly to drive home a *parable’s application in the respondent’s own case (*4 Ezra 4:20; cf. 2 Sam 12:7; 1 Kings 20:40-42).

10:29. Jewish teachers usually used “neighbor” to mean “fellow Israelite.” Leviticus 19:18 clearly means “fellow Israelite” in the immediate context, but the less immediate context applies the principle also to any non-Israelite in the land (19:34).

10:30. Jesus’ story forces his hearers to identify with a solitary merchant or a *Samaritan, though some might want to side with the priest or Levite. Like most parables, this story has one main point that answers the interlocutor’s question; the details are part of the story and are not meant to be allegorized. Jericho was lower in elevation than Jerusalem; hence one would “go down” there. Robbers were common along the steep, seventeen- mile road and would especially attack a person traveling alone. Many people did not have extra clothes, which were thus a valuable item to steal. But though clothes were a valuable commodity, completely stripping him treated him like a corpse on a battlefield. Ancient sources commonly use the expression “half-dead”; one in this condition could appear to be dead (e.g., Callimachus, Hymn 6.59; *Livy, Books from the Foundation of the City 23.15.8; 40.4.15; *Suetonius, Divus Augustus 6; Quintus Curtius Rufus, History of Alexander 4.8.8).

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10:31. Many wealthy priestly families lived in Jericho. Priests were supposed to avoid especially impurity from a corpse; *Pharisees thought one would contract it if even one’s shadow touched the corpse. Like the man who had been robbed, the priest was “going down” (v. 31), hence he was heading from Jerusalem and did not have to worry about being unable to perform duties in the temple. But although the rule of mercy would take precedence if the man were clearly alive, the man looked as if he might be dead (v. 30), and the priest did not wish to take the chance on contracting impurity. The task might be better left to a Levite or ordinary Israelite. Jesus’ criticism of the priesthood here is milder than that of the *Essenes and often that of the prophets (e.g., Hos 6:9).

10:32. Rules for Levites were not as strict as for priests, but the Levite also wished to avoid defilement.

10:33. In some later rabbinic parables, an Israelite might perform a pious duty that a priest and Levite had failed to perform, but the third character here would instead shock Jesus’ hearers. Jews and Samaritans traditionally had no love for each other; although violence was the exception rather than the rule, the literature of each betrays an attitude of hostility toward the other. Jesus’ illustration would strike at the heart of Jewish patriotism, which his contemporaries justified religiously.

10:34. Oil was used medicinally and for washing wounds; wine was also apparently used to disinfect wounds. Jewish people commonly avoided Gentile, and probably Samaritan, oil. A donkey might have seated both men, unless (as is very possible for a donkey-owner) the Samaritan was a merchant with many wares. The Samaritan instead leads the donkey, taking the inferior (even servile) position to help the Israelite. The possible allusion to 2 Chron 28:15 and its context would remind Jesus’ most biblically literate hearers of a common bond uniting two different kingdoms in the land.

10:35. “I will repay” was a standard formula guaranteeing a debt. Because inns were known for immorality and innkeepers often mistrusted, his promise to pay more offered the innkeeper further incentive to tend to the wounded man.

10:36-37. Although the legal expert is reluctant to simply confess, “the Samaritan,” Jesus has forced him to answer his own question offered in 10:29.

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10:38-42 The Woman Disciple This passage challenges the role designations for women in the first century; the role of *disciple and future agent of Jesus’ message is more critical than that of homemaker and hostess, valuable as the latter may remain.

10:38. Being one of Jesus’ hostesses would be a lot of work for Martha; he had brought many disciples to feed. Martha’s act may fall short of Mary’s in this *narrative, but her labor represents the best display of devotion she knows how to offer. Homemaking and hosting skills assigned to women in her culture gave her a way to serve Jesus.

10:39. People normally sat on chairs or, at banquets, reclined on couches; but disciples sat at the feet of their teachers (see Luke’s other use of the expression in Acts 22:3). Women could listen to Torah teaching in *synagogues and occasionally one might listen to a rabbi’s lectures, but they were not disciples sitting in the dust at sages’ feet. Mary’s posture and eagerness to absorb Jesus’ teaching at the expense of a more traditional womanly role (10:40) would have shocked most Jewish men. The most advanced level of disciples included training to become rabbis; we know of no women who filled this role in antiquity. (The case closest to a known exception was a learned rabbi’s daughter who had married another learned rabbi in the second century; but most rabbis rejected her opinions outside of domestic law.)

10:40-42. Despite the cultural importance of hospitality (the food preparation for guests was normally incumbent on the matron of the house), Mary’s role as a disciple of Jesus is more important than anything else she could do.

11:1-13 Jesus on Prayer 11:1. *Disciples commonly asked their teachers for instruction, and in later times, when prayers became more standardized, some were known to have asked the proper blessings or prayers for different occasions. Yet it was

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considered rude and impious to interrupt someone’s praying (one dare not even interrupt one’s own; cf., e.g., Mishnah Avot 3:7; Tosefta Berakhot 3:20); thus here the disciples wait till Jesus finishes his own prayers before they ask. Different teachers might teach special forms of prayers to their own groups of disciples, although most of Palestinian Jews had some prayers in common, except for radical sectarians like the *Essenes.

11:2. Jewish people commonly addressed God as “Our heavenly Father” when they prayed, although such intimate titles as “Abba” (Papa) were rare (see comment on Mk 14:36). One standard Jewish prayer of the day proclaimed, “Exalted and hallowed be your . . . name . . . and may your kingdom come speedily and soon.”

God’s name would be “hallowed,” or “sanctified,” “shown holy,” in the time of the end, when his *kingdom would come. This idea was biblical (Is 5:16; 29:23; Ezek 36:23; 38:23; 39:7, 27; cf. Zech 14:9). In the present God’s people could hallow his name by living rightly; if they lived wrongly, Jewish teachers observed, they would “profane” his name, or bring it into disrepute among the nations (cf. Jer 34:16; Ezek 13:19; 20:14; Amos 2:7).

11:3. This petition alludes to God’s provision of “daily bread” (manna) for his people after he first redeemed them (Ex 16:4). Prayers for God to supply basic needs—of which bread and water were seen as the ultimate examples—were common (cf. Prov 30:8).

11:4. Jewish people regarded sins as “debts” before God; the same *Aramaic word could be used for both. Jewish *law at least in theory required the periodic forgiveness of monetary debtors (in the seventh and fiftieth years), so the illustration of forgiving debts makes good sense. Parallels with ancient Jewish prayers suggest that “Lead us not into testing” means “Let us not sin when we are tested”—rather than “Let us not be tested” (cf. 22:46 in context).

11:5-6. Hospitality was a crucial obligation; the host must feed the traveler who has graced his or her home by coming to spend the night. Although many homes would have used up their day’s bread by nightfall, in a small village people would know who still had bread left over. In modern villages of that region, bread might last for several days, but one must serve a guest a fresh, unbroken loaf as an act of hospitality.

11:7. The children would often sleep on mats on the floor of the usual one-room dwelling. People who could afford them had beds (one of the

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most basic pieces of furniture), and those with more resources might even have canopies to protect from insects such as mosquitoes; but even most of those who had beds may have filled them with multiple persons. The door being closed might allude to it being bolted; unbolting the heavy bar that was often laid through rings attached to the door was a bother and would make noise that would awaken them. In real life, however, it should have been unthinkable for the man inside to refuse the request that affected the village’s reputation.

11:8. The continual pounding would awaken the children anyway; unbolting the door would thus no longer pose much problem. The word translated “importunity” (KJV) or “persistence” (NASB, NRSV) means “shamelessness” (sometimes like the insistence of some “holy men” in prayer in Jewish tradition;). This term refers either to the boldness of the knocker, lest he be shamed by having nothing to give his guest, or perhaps the shame of the father inside, because the whole village would be humiliated by a bad report about their hospitality.

11:9-10. In the context of the *parable, these verses mean that the knocker receives either (see 11:8) because of boldness or because the honor of God is inseparably connected with the honor of his servant, the knocker.

11:11-12. Fish was a basic staple around the Lake of Galilee. 11:13. This is a standard Jewish “how much more” (qal vahomer)

argument. Most people believed that the *Holy Spirit (1) had departed, (2) was available only to several of the holiest people, or (3) belonged to a special end-time community (*Dead Sea Scrolls). Thus the promise of verse 13 would have surprised the hearers; given common beliefs about the Spirit in ancient Judaism (based on the *Old Testament) often emphasized in Luke-Acts, this was essentially a promise that God would make them like prophets, anointed spokespersons for God.

11:14-26 Who Is Satan’s Real Vassal? 11:14-16. Ancient exorcists typically sought to remove *demons by fumigation or magical incantations. Rabbis in the second century still accused Jesus and Jewish Christians of using sorcery to achieve the

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miracles they were performing. “Beelzebul” is related to the name of the pagan god called “Baal-zebub” in 2 Kings 1:2; used as an equivalent to “Belial” (2 Cor 6:15), it was a common Jewish name for the devil in the *Testament of Solomon. (The pre-Christian work *Jubilees called him Beliar or Mastema; the *Dead Sea Scrolls, Belial; later *rabbis often called him Sammael; by whatever name, ancient Jews understood who the prince of demons was.)

11:17-18. Jesus does not deny the existence of other exorcists here, but he need not be validating most of them either: a demon’s retreat to draw attention to another of *Satan’s servants would be only a strategic retreat. Their exorcisms contrast with the wholesale exorcising of the masses that Jesus undertakes, which clearly signifies a defeat of Satan (11:20).

11:19. “Your sons” means “members of your own group” (just as, e.g., “sons of the prophets” meant “prophets”); because some of their associates also cast out demons (by methods that would look more magical than Jesus’), they should consider their charge carefully. They achieved limited success for a few individuals, not the massive results Jesus was achieving.

11:20. God’s “finger” represented his power. Although the phrase occurs elsewhere, Jesus alludes especially to Exodus 8:19, where Pharaoh’s magicians, attempting to imitate Moses’ miracles, are forced to admit that the true God is working through Moses but not through them.

11:21-23. Many early Jewish sources report that Satan or demons were “bound,” or imprisoned, somewhere after God subdued them. Less relevant to this context, ancient magical texts also speak of “binding” demons by magical procedures. The parable here about tying up a protective and armed householder means that Jesus had defeated Satan and could therefore plunder his possessions—free the demon-possessed.

11:24-26. Here Jesus returns the charge: they, not he, are servants of Satan; he casts demons out, but they invite them back in even greater numbers. Skillful lawyers and *rhetoricians delighted in subverting an opponent’s charge by showing that the opponent himself was guilty and thus unqualified to bring the accusation.

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11:27-36 The Genuinely Blessed 11:27-28. It was customary to praise the child by blessing the mother; this figure of speech occurs in Greco-Roman literature (e.g., the first-century Roman satirist *Petronius), rabbinic texts (e.g., sayings attributed to Johanan ben Zakkai) and elsewhere (e.g., *2 Baruch 54:10).

11:29-30. Jonah’s preaching was a simple message of judgment, but that was all that Nineveh required in his generation.

11:31-32. Jewish discussions of the end times included converts from among the poor who would testify against those who said they were too poor to follow God; and similarly converts among the rich, converts among the *Gentiles and so on. Thus no one could say, “My group had no opportunity to repent.” Here Jesus appeals to pagans who converted. Ancient Sheba was probably in south Arabia and/or the horn of Africa. Jewish people in this period probably thought of the “Queen of the South,” the queen of Sheba, as the queen of “Ethiopia” (the Greek title for Africa south of Egypt), which was considered the southernmost part of the world (cf. Acts 8:27). *Josephus thought that she ruled Egypt and Ethiopia (Jewish Antiquities 8.159, 165, 175).

11:33. Most Palestinian homes did not have “cellars,” but Luke is relating the image to his audience; many Greek homes did have them (cf. 6:48). Sizeable Greek houses often placed the lamp in the vestibule, and many Palestinian homes had only one room; whichever architectural style is in view, “those who enter in” would immediately see the lamp.

11:34-36. Jesus speaks literally of a “single” eye versus a “bad” or “evil” one. A “single” eye normally meant a generous one. A “bad” eye in that culture could mean either a diseased one or a stingy one. Many people believed that light was emitted from the eye, enabling one to see, rather than that light was admitted through the eye; here it seems to be admitted through the eye.

11:37-54 Denouncing Religious Colleagues

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As in 7:36-50, a dinner becomes the occasion for moral instruction (this practice was so common in antiquity that it became a frequent setting in a type of philosophical literature called a symposium). Even more than in 7:36-50, it also becomes the occasion for confrontation.

11:37. The *Pharisee’s behavior would have appeared honorable; see comment on 7:36. Prominent teachers would be invited to lecture at such meals, discoursing on wise topics with others who also liked to show off their education.

11:38. Pharisees were particularly scrupulous about washing their hands, a tradition common in the *Diaspora but not practiced in the *Old Testament.

11:39-40. Ritual purity was important to the Pharisees, so they washed their vessels as well as themselves in ritual baths. The school of *Shammai —the Pharisaic majority in this period—said that the outside of a cup could be clean even if the inside were not; the minority view, held by *Hillel’s followers, was that the inside of the cup must be cleansed first. Jesus sides with the school of Hillel on this point, but does so to make a figurative statement about the inside of the person, the heart.

11:41. The *Aramaic word for “cleanse” (Mt 23:26) is similar to that for “give in charity”; it is possible that Luke adopts one nuance of an Aramaic wordplay by Jesus, while Matthew adopts another.

11:42. Tithes were used especially to support the priests and Levites. “Rue” and Matthew’s “dill” (23:23) are similar words in Aramaic, possibly reflecting an original Aramaic source here. The written *law did not explicitly require tithing these dry, green, garden herbs; the question among the Pharisees was whether they counted as foodstuffs and hence were subject to tithing. Jesus may thus address a hyperbolic, superscrupulous Pharisee.

11:43. Pharisees were considered quite meticulous in their observance of the law, people were seated by social rank in public places, including *synagogues, and those regarded as superior in their knowledge of the law were hailed especially respectfully in the marketplaces. Custom dictated the character of greetings, so that people of higher status were greeted first.

11:44. Nothing spread ritual impurity as severely as a corpse; Pharisees believed that one contracted impurity if even one’s shadow touched a corpse or grave. Inconspicuous tombs (or limestone ossuaries) would be

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whitewashed each spring to warn passersby to avoid them and so to avoid impurity, but the Pharisees lack this telltale warning sign. They look religious on the outside but spread impurity.

11:45. Luke is more concerned to distinguish Pharisees from professional legal experts than Matthew is (cf. Mt 23:13-29). Although some Pharisees worked as legal experts and some legal experts were Pharisees, these groups were not identical.

11:46-47. Ancient Judaism emphasized more often than the Old Testament had that Israel had martyred its prophets; the Jewish community in this period built tombs as monuments for the prophets and the righteous (including some Old Testament servants of God who were not martyred, like David or Huldah).

11:48. The point of Jesus’ saying here is “like father, like son”; speakers sometimes linked those they accused with the misdeeds of their ancestors, pointing out that this was what one expected. Corporate sin and guilt continued among the descendants of the wicked unless they repented (Ex 20:5; Deut 23:2-6; 1 Sam 15:2-3; 2 Sam 21:1; Is 1:4; etc.).

11:49-51. Jewish sources often personify God’s wisdom. Many Jewish people believed that fully anointed prophets had ceased at the end of the Old Testament period and would be restored only in the end time. Bloodguilt was a serious matter, affecting the whole community and not just the individuals directly responsible (Deut 21:1-9). God would avenge it (Deut 32:43; Ps 79:10). The *rabbis considered the place between the porch and altar the holiest place on earth after the holy of holies and the priestly sanctuary.

The Hebrew Bible filled multiple scrolls, but ancients generally thought of their arrangement differently than in our English Bibles today. Thus Zechariah could be the last martyr (2 Chron 24:20-22), while (as in our Bibles) Abel was the first (Gen 4:8). Jewish tradition expanded the accounts of both martyrdoms, declaring that after Zechariah’s death a fountain of blood appeared in the temple that even the slaughter of thousands of priests could not appease. Zechariah prayed for vengeance (2 Chron 24:22), and Abel’s blood cried out from the ground (Gen 4:10); to say that their vengeance would be requited on Jesus’ generation was thus to promise unimaginable horrors. This judgment is because his generation would climax the terrible sins of their spiritual ancestors.

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11:52-54. Experts in the law supposedly increased knowledge of the law; for Jesus to charge that their detailed expositions of it instead rendered its plain meaning inaccessible was a serious accusation.

12:1-12 Sound Speech and the Day of Judgment Some Jewish sages focused on the end time. Jesus warns his hearers to evaluate all their values and priorities in view of the day of judgment: their words, their lives and (in 12:13-34) their possessions. Although the world’s hostility appears somewhat less pronounced in Luke (who, like the Jewish authors *Philo and *Josephus, wants his faith to make sense to the broader culture) than in Mark (who, like many *apocalyptic writers, experienced only opposition from the world), Luke reports Jesus’ warnings no less plainly than other writers: following Jesus is costly. The costs of not following, however, are eternal.

12:1. From natural acoustic settings (e.g., coves or hills) a powerful speaker could address a vast crowd. A crowd of “many thousands” was rare; had the Romans known of such large crowds in the wilderness, they might have detained Jesus. They did not trust large gatherings of people who met without their sanction and whose potentially revolutionary *rhetoric they could not monitor. (The theater in the Galilean city Sepphoris seated four to five thousand people, but because it was not in the countryside, any anti-Roman rhetoric would have been more quickly an issue.) The odds of Roman interference at this point are small, however; they did not patrol the Galilean countryside, and their highest officers are as yet unaware of Jesus (23:2).

12:2-3. The flat housetops would have provided the most conspicuous forum for shouting news to neighbors; they were in the open, as opposed to the inner rooms. The darkness of night was considered the easiest time to pass along secrets (or do antisocial activities that would not be known). In this context, 12:2-3 may either warn that one’s confession or denial of *Christ will be reported by deceptive betrayers (12:1, 4-5) or that it will be reported at the judgment (12:4-10). The day of judgment would bring all

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deeds to light (cf., e.g., Is 29:15); the wicked would be ashamed and the righteous vindicated (e.g., Is 45:16-17).

12:4-5. All Jewish hearers would understand “the one who has authority to cast into hell” as God, the judge, whose power the wise are respectfully to “fear” (e.g., Prov 1:7).

12:6-7. Sparrows were one of the cheapest items sold for poor people’s food in the market place and were the cheapest of all birds. According to Matthew 10:29, one could purchase two sparrows for an assarion, a small copper coin of little value; here it appears that they are even cheaper if purchased in larger quantities. This is a standard Jewish “how much more” argument: If God cares for something as cheap as sparrows, how much more does he care for humans? The hairs of one’s head being numbered was an *Old Testament way of saying that nothing could happen to a person without God allowing it (cf. 1 Sam 14:45; 2 Sam 14:11; 1 Kings 1:52).

12:8-9. Jesus is presented as both intercessor (defense attorney) and prosecutor before the heavenly court, a familiar Jewish image. In many Jewish accounts, the heavenly court consisted of angels; the angels would certainly be gathered for the day of judgment. God would pass final judgment, but the text implies that Jesus never loses a case before him.

12:10. When Jesus says people “will be forgiven,” he means that God will forgive them (Jewish people sometimes used passive constructions to avoid use of God’s name). See comment on Mark 3:23-30. In this context, blasphemy against the Spirit might apply to a denial of Jesus (in the face of danger) of which the denier (unlike Peter) never repents.

12:11. Synagogues functioned as meeting places for Jewish local courts; transgressors were sometimes beaten there. Punishments meted out by Roman authorities were normally even harsher than Jewish punishments.

12:12. The Jewish people viewed the *Holy Spirit especially as the Spirit of prophetic inspiration and empowerment; thus when brought before the authorities (12:11) believers would be empowered to speak God’s message as plainly as did the Old Testament prophets. (Inspiration does not, of course, imply lack of general preparation or discipline in the subject about which one speaks; *disciples memorized the sayings of their teachers in both Jewish and Greek culture, and Jesus’ disciples would know his teaching as well as being inspired by the Spirit.)

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12:13-21 Materialism and Hell 12:13. People often called upon *rabbis to settle legal disputes. Inheritance disputes were extremely prominent in *Gentile courts, where wills would determine inheritance. Jewish *law should have been less complicated: the eldest son was supposed to receive double what any of the other sons would receive (Deut 21:17). The proportion of inheritance in a Jewish setting was thus fixed (though particular items may be in dispute), and the plaintiff in this case has every legal right to receive his share of the inheritance.

12:14-15. Jesus’ answer would strike first-century hearers forcefully: the issue is not whether the plaintiff is legally in the right (probably clear; cf. 12:13); the issue is that life, not possessions, is what matters. Even most peasants owned some property (a dwelling), so Jesus’ words strike at the very heart of human desire. Only a few Greek philosophers (e.g., *Epictetus) uttered words about possessions that sounded as countercultural as Jesus’ here.

12:16-18. Archaeologists have found large grain silos on farms owned by wealthy absentee landowners, such as at Sepphoris, one of the largest and most *Hellenized Jewish cities in Galilee. The image in the *parable here is that of a wealthy landowner, part of the extremely small leisured class (generally estimated at less than one percent), who need not labor in his own fields. Although many peasants may have taken pride in their labor and few could ever change their social status, the lifestyles of the rich and famous provided natural models for popular envy.

12:19. The *Epicurean-like complacency of the man who would “eat, drink and be merry” probably refers to the analogous folly of well-to-do Jews in Isaiah 22:13-14. It was the best that mortal life itself could offer a person (Eccles 2:24; 3:12; 5:18-19), but one needed also to consider God’s demands (11:7-12:14). Many other Jewish texts also criticize the self-‐ sufficient person who thinks that he or she has it all and does not reckon with death (e.g., Sirach 11:18-19; Syriac Menander’s Sentences 368-76; *Pseudo-Phocylides 109-10; *1 Enoch 97:8-10).

12:20. The idea of leaving the fruit of one’s labors to others more worthy appears in the *Old Testament wisdom tradition (e.g., Prov 13:22; Eccles 2:18); the fear of leaving it to someone who would squander it is

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also common in ancient literature; the image of life being loaned to a person and required back at death would have likewise been familiar (Wisdom of Solomon 15:8).

12:21. Jesus does not state that the sin is how the man gained his income but simply that he hoarded it rather than giving generously; the same emphasis appears in Proverbs.

12:22-34 The Unimportance of Possessions 12:22-23. Jesus reasons back to basics: one’s basic needs relate to survival. Some philosophers taught that people should seek only these basic needs, although most philosophers felt that people could acquire possessions as long as they did not go out of their way to seek them. The *Cynics, however, owned nothing; and among Palestinian Jews, the *Essenes shared all their possessions communally. Jesus nowhere prohibits possessions, but he teaches priorities that challenge his followers’ lifestyles; whereas people and their needs matter, possessions beyond one’s needs are worthless.

12:24-28. Jewish (and Greek) wisdom teachers often illustrated their points from nature. Solomon’s splendor, during what was undoubtedly the wealthiest period materially in Israel’s history, was impressive by all human standards (1 Kings 10:5). A cubit is a measure of length; if Jesus applies it to longevity, as some think, such clever wording was sometimes used to hold people’s attention.

12:29-30. A Jewish hearer would not wish to be worse than the “nations,” the godless *Gentiles. The Jewish people believed that God was their (not the Gentiles’) father.

12:31-32. Here Jesus may use a Jewish “how much more” argument (if God gives you the *kingdom, how much more will he also supply all other needs).

12:33-34. One should invest in *eternal life rather than in possessions; see comment on Matthew 6:19-21.

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12:35-40 Ready for His Coming In context (12:22-34), this passage suggests that only those who travel lightly will be prepared. Although most of Jesus’ Jewish contemporaries longed and prayed for the time of future redemption, on average they also seem to have been more preoccupied with daily needs than with extraordinary preparation for the future judgment (exceptions were the *Essenes, *apocalyptic visionaries and followers of messianic figures and revolutionaries).

12:35. Like military watchmen or others who stay prepared when others sleep, Jesus’ followers must be dressed and ready for action (Ex 12:11). Keeping lamps lit would literally mean having a ready supply of oil and staying awake so they could draw on this supply; this is a figure for preparedness (cf. Mt 25:3-10). Keeping loins girded (so the Greek here) means keeping ready for action (cf. Ex 12:11; 2 Kings 4:29; 9:1), since one could not easily run with the folds of one’s long robe impeding.

12:36. Well-to-do householders often had a special slave or slaves in charge of keeping the door; these slave-porters would keep unwanted persons out but admit members of the household. If Jewish banquets resembled Greek and Roman banquets, the feasting itself could last well into the night. Although he might not remain for the full seven days of the feast, it would be unusual for a well-to-do householder to return from a distant banquet (as opposed to one in the same city) in the night. Robbers made night travel more dangerous, though the danger was reduced by a large entourage. (In large urban areas, travel alone at night was dangerous even within one’s city, although that might not be relevant to Jesus’ primary audience here.)

12:37. Although a few philosophers argued that slaves were the moral equals of their masters, and one well-to-do Roman is known to have eaten on the same level as his freed slaves, masters’ serving slaves was unheard of. (The exception among Romans for the festival of Saturnalia was a deliberate inversion of normal reality.) Such an image would offend the well-to-do but would be a powerful symbol of how Jesus would treat those who remained faithful to the end.

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12:38. Here the passage follows a Jewish division of night into three watches; contrast the division for Roman guard duty in Mark 13:35.

12:39. The term translated “broken into” can mean literally “dug through”; walls were often built of dried mud and thus one could dig through them, although it would be quicker to simply break in the door. More well-to-do homes could use stone instead. Israelite *law considered thieves breaking in at night the most dangerous.

12:40. Many Jewish thinkers viewed the time of the *Messiah’s coming as in God’s hands alone (though some believed that Israel’s *repentance could hasten it).

12:41-48 For Ministers Too Leaders in the *church must recognize that they are appointed only to serve their fellow servants, the rest of the church.

12:41. *Disciples often sought clarification from their teachers by asking questions.

12:42. Many well-to-do householders had a hired person or slave called a “steward,” a sort of business manager who managed the estate. Such a high-level slave (as is in view here; 12:43) could be in charge of rations to the other servants.

12:43-44. Upward mobility existed among household servants; indeed, many such servants outranked free peasants in terms of real power or status, and even earned more money (which they could later use to buy their freedom). (In the most powerful households in the empire, the highest-level slaves and *freedpersons sometimes wielded more power than most aristocrats, though such power is not in direct view here.)

12:45. High-status slaves often wielded more power than did most free persons; nevertheless, slaveholders would be enraged by abuses. Absentee landowners and householders were not infrequent, especially if they owned other estates at a great distance. In other stories of the period, absentee kings, landowners or husbands posed temptations to those remaining behind. Drunkenness was despised, even more when slaves became drunk at the master’s expense. A slave who abused the other slaves was viewed as

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mistreating his master’s property (see comment on 12:47-48); in some cases, slaves were also objects of a master’s personal concern.

12:46. The *Gentile punishment of “cutting in pieces” is attested elsewhere, especially in an earlier period; Luke’s hearers, who would view themselves as more civilized, would no doubt find this detail horrifying. Taken literally, the subsequent banishment with unbelievers could mean that he was deprived of decent burial (reserved for the worst crimes; see comment on Rev 11:8; sometimes the pieces of dismembered corpses were also scattered for further punishment). In the *parable, however, it especially points to the Jewish doctrine of hell (Gehinnom; see “*Gehenna” in the glossary) for idolaters and other transgressors.

12:47-48. Some ancient laws treated slaves as persons; other laws treated them as property. Although masters were allowed to beat slaves (as they also generally beat their children), it was in their economic interests not to do so often or severely. A major flogging (12:47), execution and disfigurement of the corpse (12:46) reflect the severity of the crime; a master legally had the power of life and death over his slaves. Floggings often preceded executions in general. The parable indicates that greater knowledge brings greater responsibility (see Lev 26:18; Amos 3:1-2).

12:49-53 Bringer of Division Jesus’ ethics and mission differ so radically from those of the world that division is inevitable.

12:49. The fire probably refers to the impending end-time judgment. Fire in the Old Testament could symbolize the end-time judgment and purging; cf. comment on 3:16.

12:50. Jesus’ impending “*baptism” may refer to undergoing the baptism of fire (12:49; judgment—3:16; cf. also comment on Mk 10:38).

12:51-53. Given the great emphasis on family harmony in Judaism, Jesus’ words here would strike the hearers strongly (cf. Mic 7:6). Extended family lived in the same household more frequently than today, although not every one would have had in-laws present.

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12:54-59 Signs of the Times 12:54. In Palestine, a cloud from the west would be coming from the Mediterranean Sea and thus would be full of rain.

12:55. In much of the Mediterranean world, a wind from the south would bring hot air from the Sahara Desert. In Palestine, it came especially from the Arabian desert to the southeast, but the immediate south of Judea was also hot desert.

12:56-57. Such weather predictors (12:54-55) were obvious; Jesus says that the truth of his message is equally obvious. Speakers sometimes *rhetorically challenged their hearers to decide the matter (12:57).

12:58-59. Here Jesus refers to the ancient practice of debt imprisonment (cf. debt slavery in the *Old Testament, e.g., Lev 25:39-41; Amos 2:6). In debt imprisonment, one without access to means would have to depend on friends to come up with the needed funds; one would not be released unless they did so. The term for “officer” here can apply to a constable overseeing a debtors’ prison. (This may be a contextualization for Greek readers of a more general term as in Mt 5:25.)

13:1-9 Repent or Perish 13:1-5. As in many cultures today, so in much ancient Jewish thought, when something bad happened to someone, people wondered what the person had done wrong. Stories of atrocities traveled quickly, and often grew as they spread. *Pilate’s cruelty here fits the sort of conflicts he had with the Jewish community; his known brutality (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 18.60-62); the presence of Galilean pilgrims at the holy days celebrated in Jerusalem; and the governor’s practice of coming to feasts to maintain order. The “tower in Siloam” may have been on Jerusalem’s city wall above the pool of Siloam; some suggest that it may have been associated with Pilate’s construction of an improved water-supply system for the city. The feast may have been Passover, when non-priests offered their animals.

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13:6. *Parables often includes stories about plants and animals (though only relatively rarely in Jewish parables did they speak, as in many Greek fables). Palestinian vineyards often contained fruit trees in addition to vines.

13:7. That some fig trees did not bear fruit in a given year did not mean that they would never do so (cf. comment on Mk 11:12-14), and fig trees do not always bear fruit even within their first four or five years. In this parable the vineyard worker asks the master to wait till the fourth year to make sure it was a worthless tree (cf. Is 65:8). According to rabbinic interpretation of Leviticus 19:23, fruit from newly planted trees was forbidden for three years (though the Jewish tradition may have applied more strictly to olives than to figs). In later Jewish teaching, God examined Israel’s sins once a year to decide their future for the coming year; but it is not clear if Jesus alludes to such an idea here. The space it takes up could be used for vines.

13:8. The vineyard worker answers to the owner, perhaps as his servant, yet intercedes on behalf of the fig tree. Digging around a tree and putting manure around it to fertilize it were common procedures, but fig trees usually did not need manure; the worker does all he can to try to save the tree. Jewish teachers debated whether Israel’s *repentance could change the set time of the end, but they agreed that God could suspend his judgment if he saw repentance.

13:10-17 Healing on the Sabbath 13:10. Visiting teachers were commonly asked to speak in *synagogues on the sabbath.

13:11-12. Ancient medical writers used words like “loose” to describe the removal of curvature of the spine and related ailments. The term was also used of freeing people from a *demon’s grip.

13:13-14. The synagogue leader’s argument sounds logical: work is forbidden on the sabbath, but that still leaves six days a week for healings. The problem with the argument is that biblical sabbath *laws did not restrict God’s activity, and the only physical work Jesus performs on this sick woman is to lay his hands on her (though some *Pharisees considered this work). Even Pharisaic rules officially forbade only healing by a physician;

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they debated the propriety of prayer for the sick on the sabbath. But we do not know if Pharisees were present on this occasion anyway; most of the estimated six thousand seem to have lived in Judea.

13:15-16. Here again Jesus uses the common Jewish “how much more” (qal vahomer) argument: if one could release an animal from a bond for its own good on the sabbath (one of the few kinds of tying and loosing permitted then), how much more could one release a “daughter of Abraham” (i.e., an Israelite) from her satanic bonds?

13:17. Arguments by analogy were accepted in Jewish legal debate; Jesus has skillfully outmaneuvered his opponents. Both Greek and later rabbinic controversy *narratives typically culminated in the wise protagonist’s response that silenced his opponents, so Jesus’ triumph would be obvious to Luke’s readers.

13:18-30 The Nature of the Kingdom 13:18. “To what shall we compare?” was a common rabbinic way to introduce a *parable to illustrate a point.

13:19. Everyone regarded the mustard seed as very small; indeed, something smaller would be hard to see easily. It nevertheless yielded a shrub the size of a small tree (around the Sea of Galilee, it can reach a height of eight to ten feet, though rarely more than five, if interpreters have the correct plant in view), with room for small birds to perch in it (borrowing the language of Daniel 4:12, the splendor of a mortal ruler’s kingdom). According to second-century Palestinian teachers the mustard seed was not sown in gardens (cf. Mt 13:31); but outside Palestine (where Luke’s hearers lived) it could be.

13:20-21. Leaven, or yeast, would be mixed with flour throughout the dough. The point of both parables (13:18-21) is that the mighty *kingdom everyone expects could issue from apparently obscure beginnings—like Jesus and the *disciples.

13:22-24. The image of “the two ways” was common in Jewish (and other ancient) literature; some texts also stressed that the majority of people would follow the way to destruction (see, from the late first or early second

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century, *4 Ezra 7:3-16, 60-61; 8:1-3). Other Jewish groups besides Christians, like the *Essenes, also believed that they were the only saved group. But many mainstream Jews apparently believed that nearly all Israel would be saved in the time to come (cf. Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1).

13:25. It was an essential social rule to greet by name or title those persons one knew. To deny knowledge of where they were from would be to deny knowing them and was a form of repudiation.

13:26-27. Table fellowship created a social bond; hospitality bound its recipient to friendship (cf. comment on 14:1). In this parable the fugitives from destruction try to remind the owner of the house who they are, but he reiterates that he does not know them, and therefore they will not enter his house. The final line is Psalm 6:8 (cf. 119:115; 139:19), where the workers of iniquity are the psalmist’s own persecutors, against whom the Lord takes vengeance to vindicate the psalmist.

13:28. Most Jewish people assumed that God had prepared the kingdom for Israel; they expected to participate in it with the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) and the prophets (see on 13:22-24).

13:29-30. Here Jesus could refer to the gathering of the Jews dispersed outside Palestine, but in the context of Luke-Acts (and the parallel in Mt 8:11-12) the point is much more shocking: *Gentiles will participate in the kingdom, reclining (the posture used for feasts) at the messianic banquet, from which many of the people who expected to be there would be excluded. The four directions were used together to mean “everywhere.”

13:31-35 Lament of the Rejected Lover 13:31. Herod Antipas had considerably more authority in Galilee than the priestly aristocracy did in Jerusalem; he had executed John and could do the same with Jesus. If, however, Jesus leaves Antipas’s jurisdiction (as the well-meaning *Pharisees here warn him to do), he will be safe.

13:32. Calling someone a “fox” in antiquity would not necessarily imply that the person is sly (although that was one possibility); instead, it could portray the person as worthless, slanderous, treacherous or (quite often) cunning, but often in an unprincipled manner. Thus Jesus here does

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not offer Herod a backhanded compliment (cf. Ezek 13:4). Moreover, foxes were predators and scavengers (Neh 4:3; Song 2:15; Lam 5:18), hence could prey on hens (Lk 13:34) when they had the opportunity. Ancient stories feature their cunning and their activity as predators more than any strength; though ancient stories regularly portray them as predators, they sometimes emphasize that they (and even wolves) are inferior in power to lions, the most powerful predators.

13:33. In the *Old Testament some prophets were martyred, and Jewish tradition applied this fate to many other prophets as well. Jesus plays on this tradition; in several days he will enter the city that had murdered the most prophets (i.e., he is leaving Antipas’s jurisdiction but will die soon, with or without Herod’s help). That Jerusalem was prophets’ only place of martyrdom was hyperbolic, but it was naturally the center of persecution in ancient Judah. Putting it so starkly, however, would shock many Jewish listeners, because most Jews except the Essenes considered Jerusalem the center of Jewish piety.

13:34. Jewish tradition claimed that Jewish people were under God’s wings, and when a Jewish person converted a Gentile, he or she “brought the Gentile under the wings of God’s presence.” The Old Testament also portrays God as an eagle hovering over its offspring (Deut 32:11; cf. Ex 19:4) and protecting Israel under his wings (Ps 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 61:4; 63:7; 91:4), and similarly terrifying Israel’s foes (Jer 49:22). This is but one image of God’s love for his people. Jesus here applies this divine role and image to himself.

13:35. The desolation of the “house” probably refers to the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 (cf. Lk 21). The quotation is from Psalm 118:26, which was sung during this season at the Passover and which the crowds will sing to Jesus at his entry into Jerusalem (19:38).

14:1-6 Healing on the Sabbath 14:1. Eating bread together was supposed to be an occasion for intimate fellowship; treachery or less than friendly motives among those sharing a meal would repulse ancient readers. This feeling would be magnified at a

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sabbath meal, to which many Jewish people considered it particularly virtuous to invite a prominent teacher.

14:2. Dropsy (edema) causes the body to swell from excess fluids, as ancient medical texts commonly mention. Because the man with dropsy here is in front of Jesus and not on the room’s periphery, he might be an invited guest.

14:3-6. Jewish legal experts debated proper sabbath *laws among themselves; if one side was silenced and unable to reply, they would be presumed wrong or at best too ignorant of the law to defend their position. *Essenes did not permit rescuing an animal on the sabbath, but *Pharisees did. Jesus argues by analogy with a principle on which his opponents agreed, and extrapolates by a “how much more” argument; cf. 13:15-16.

14:7-14 Instructions to Guests and Hosts 14:7. Well-known teachers customarily lectured or participated in dialogues at banquets. Ancient writers sometimes arranged literary discussions as monologues or dialogues in the setting of such banquets; these writings were called symposia.

Social status was important in antiquity and was made obvious by the seating of dinner guests at banquets. This status was especially a problem in well-to-do Greco-Roman circles (see comment on 1 Cor 11:21), but seating by rank is well attested in Palestinian Jewish society, including in the *Dead Sea Scrolls.

14:8-10. Jesus states a principle directly from Proverbs 25:6-7—to which the guests were not paying much attention—that is repeated in other ancient Jewish texts. Yet as in Roman circles, no one of socially inferior status would be arbitrarily invited forward; one would be advanced only if one had sat in too low a position.

14:11. Here Jesus repeats a standard *Old Testament promise, applied especially to the day of judgment (cf. Is 2:12; Ezek 17:24; 21:26; cf. also comment on Lk 1:52-53).

14:12. Not to invite people of one’s own social status would offend them; but Jesus says that the other’s need, not one’s own social standing,

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must determine the giving of gifts. The Old Testament forbade charging interest on a loan and so profiting by one’s neighbor; but Jesus’ principle here excludes looking for any repayment at all; cf. 6:34-35.

14:13. Well-to-do persons in the Greco-Roman world usually invited people of somewhat lower social status in return for receiving honor, but these invitees would still be relatively respectable, not absolute dependents or beggars, as those who were unable to walk or were blind would be in that society, or peasants (although many Jewish teachers might regard inviting beggars and peasants as an act of piety). Those unable to walk or who were blind were not permitted on the premises of the probably *Essene community at *Qumran, but this was for ritual reasons.

14:14. Judaism taught that the righteous would ultimately be rewarded at the *resurrection of the dead; here Jesus applies this truth to distribution of resources. That God repaid those who helped the poor was already taught in the Old Testament (Prov 19:17).

14:15-24 The Ultimate Banquet Those one would have expected to attend God’s banquet had turned him down; thus he has every right to invite the outcasts of society whose presence would offend the powerful.

14:15. Texts reflecting Jewish expectation (as early as Is 25:6-9) often portrayed the *kingdom of God as a banquet.

14:16. The man in the *parable would have invited well-to-do persons; though not of higher status and wealth than himself, he would invite peers and those less well-to-do but still respectable.

14:17. Invitations were often R.S.V.P.; thus these invited guests had already confirmed that they were coming.

14:18. One would think that this man would have examined the land beforehand, even if he had bought it through an agent. (Indeed, legal contracts often specified that the buyer had examined the property and found it satisfactory; e.g., P.Oxy. 1707.13-15.) The buyer may have been legally obligated to go to complete the purchase; deals were also sometimes made contingent on a later inspection. But like the excuses that follow, this

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late notice would be heard as a weak excuse that would serve as a grievous insult to the dignity of the host, who had prepared the feast at much expense.

14:19. A buyer could test oxen before buying them. Indeed, only a fool would buy an animal without examining it (cf. *Seneca, Epistle to Lucilius 47.16). Having even a total of five yoke of oxen would mean that this man had much land to plow; he must be a wealthy landowner in his own right. It would therefore be inconceivable that he had no one working for him.

14:20. The rudeness escalates: the first man objected, “I need to go,” but asked to be excused; the second, “I go,” but also asked to be excused; this man does not even ask to be excused! This man’s excuse is a valid one for not going to war during the first year of marriage (Deut 20:7; 24:5; cf. 1 Maccabees 3:56), but it is not valid for skipping a feast one had promised to attend, even though women (including his new wife) were sometimes not invited to such dinners (and would have often been in a separate banquet hall if they were). Banquets generally lasted into the night. Wedding feasts (which this feast probably is; cf. Mt 22:2) were planned far in advance, and the man should have known not to schedule two events at the same time.

14:21-22. Banquets were meant to bring the host honor, but the corporate insult of 14:18-20 instead dishonored him. He can recoup at least some honor (and keep the meat from spoiling) only by getting at least some guests. Poor people rarely entered the walled, well-to-do part of a city; bringing in beggars from off the street was unheard of (see comment on 14:13). (The Dead Sea Scrolls exclude the maimed and blind from the future messianic banquet.) The host’s behavior will not be socially respectable to his own class, but it will give him honor at least with someone. “Lanes” here may represent the narrow walkways between the residences of the poor.

14:23-24. Because the poor would feel unworthy to come, the slave must compel them. A higher-ranking slave in a wealthy household might be of higher status than poor free persons.

14:25-35 The Cost of Following Jesus

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The demand that all Jesus’ *disciples value the needy above respectability (14:7-24) deprives them of the right to remain socially respectable; to count the cost of following Jesus, one dare not value family approval (14:26) or any possessions (14:33) above God’s call heard through the world’s need.

14:25-26. “Hate” could function as a hyperbolic, Semitic way of saying “love less” (Mt 10:37), but this point hardly diminishes the offensiveness of this saying in a society where honor of parents was considered virtually the highest obligation and one’s family was usually one’s greatest joy. Teachers regularly demanded great respect and affection, but in Jewish tradition only God openly demanded such wholesale devotion as Jesus claims here (Deut 6:4-5).

14:27. A condemned criminal would “carry the cross” (i.e., the horizontal beam of the cross) out to the site of the upright stake where he would be crucified, usually amid a jeering mob. No one would choose this fate for oneself, but Jesus calls true disciples to choose it and thus to hate their own lives by comparison with their devotion to him (14:26).

14:28-30. Wealthy people displayed their power by magnificent private buildings or by supporting public buildings. Failing to finish, however, would convince others that the donors’ supposed wealth was merely pretense. Several years earlier (A.D. 27) a poorly built amphitheater had collapsed, with an estimated fifty thousand casualties. The failings of inadequate or half-finished structures were well known. The crucial point here, however, is the builder’s shame in a society obsessed with honor.

14:31-32. Occasionally those with smaller forces defeated those with larger ones, but it was normally wiser to sue for peace (cf. Prov 20:18; 24:6). Galilee’s tetrarch Herod Antipas had recently (A.D. 29) lost a war with a neighboring Roman vassal, so the image of foolhardy war should be meaningful to Jesus’ hearers. Jesus’ point (as in 14:28-30) is that one must recognize the cost when one enlists as a disciple of Jesus (cf. Prov 20:18; 24:6).

14:33. The *Essenes devoted all their property to the community; some radical Greek philosophers espoused the same kind of teaching. But the rest of early Judaism and, even more, Greco-Roman society in general rejected such fanaticism; Judaism stressed giving to charity but not divestiture of possessions. Jesus’ disciples did not become propertyless but shared all that

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they had (Acts 2:44-45; cf. comment on 12:12). Nevertheless, Jesus would sound like one of the radical teachers, because he claims that anyone who values possessions more than people—and so holds onto them rather than meeting known needs—is not being his disciple.

14:34-35. Salt was particularly used as a seasoning agent for taste. Some suggest that it was sometimes (probably not in Palestine) mixed in with manure to keep it fresh for use as fertilizer (slowing fermentation, although the salt itself would be counterproductive in fertilizing soil, unless one’s purpose was to make ruined land incapable of producing; it might also be used for killing weeds). The point is that disciples who do not live like disciples are worth as much as unsalty salt: nothing. (Such graphic demands *rhetorically commanded attention, but Jesus’ desire for all to be transformed is clear in the context; see 15:1.)

15:1-2 Sinful Friends 15:1. *Tax gatherers and sinners were excluded from the religious community; cf. comment on 5:29-32. Proverbs (1:15; 13:20; 14:7) warns of the danger of spending time with sinners (cf. also Ps 1:1). But it is clear in this text that the moral influence is from Jesus to the sinners, not the reverse. Many religious Jews emphasized talking about the *law whenever possible; no one could legitimately complain about Jesus, who here communicates God’s message to his listeners during table fellowship (on lectures at meals, cf. comment on 14:7).

15:2. *Pharisees and legal teachers did not consider it proper to eat with those excluded from the religious community; besides such dangers as eating untithed food, intimate table fellowship connoted acceptance. “Grumbling” could remind biblically knowledgeable ancient readers of Israel’s unbelief and murmuring in the wilderness.

15:3-7 The Lost Sheep

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Jesus addresses three *parables to his religious accusers (15:1-2), in effect turning the tables on them and demonstrating that they were not truly God’s friends. Pharisees considered shepherds members of an unclean profession and thus would not readily identify with the protagonist of the story (but cf. 2:8-20).

15:3-4. One hundred was not an unusual size for a flock. Because shepherds often worked together (cf. e.g., 2:8) or with cowherds in the same area, this shepherd could probably leave his flock with his companions without endangering the flock. That they remain in the open pasture at night makes it likely that this is the warm season, not winter. Other Jewish teachers stressed God’s forgiveness for the repentant, but did not stress God’s seeking sinners out.

15:5. The easiest way to carry a lamb may have been across one’s shoulders, with the legs crossed over one’s chest (cf. God carrying his sheep in Ps 28:9; Is 40:11, but in the latter text God carries lambs at his breast).

15:6-7. “Heaven” was sometimes a surrogate title for God (15:18), but might allude more broadly to heaven’s watching inhabitants (cf. 15:10). The moral of the story is: As the shepherd’s friends rejoice when he finds that which was lost, so do God’s friends rejoice when he recovers what was lost to him. Thus Jesus’ accusers, who resent his fellowship with sinners he seeks to restore, may not really be God’s friends (15:1-2).

15:8-10 The Lost Coin The relative value of the lost item increases in each parable: one out of one hundred, one out of ten and finally (15:11) one out of two. Pharisees were generally unimpressed with the moral character of women and, though valuing care for the poor, mostly came from an educated class different from people with just ten coins. They would not readily identify with the protagonist of this story (contrast Luke’s approach in 24:1-11).

15:8. The ten silver coins are most likely the woman’s dowry—the only money she brings into the marriage that is technically hers even if the marriage is dissolved. That she has only ten coins (worth about ten days of a worker’s wages) suggests that her father’s family is not well-to-do; she

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would presumably have married into a household roughly equally poor (marriage within one’s economic bracket was preferred). Given Luke’s emphasis on widows elsewhere and his lack of specification here, she is probably not envisioned specifically as a widow, but a widow with only ten coins would be in an even more desperate condition.

The lamp here is a small, handheld oil lamp, which emits little light but is more helpful than the small (if any) window that may be in her wall. The rough stone floors of poor homes had many crevices between the stones, into which coins and fragments of pottery fell so often that archaeologists can now use coins in those crevices to date when people lived in these homes. By sweeping with a broom she might hope to hear the coin rattle against the floor.

15:9-10. See comment on 15:6-7 for the moral. In Jewish tradition the angels in heaven generally took great interest in God’s workings on earth; seven chief angels surrounded the throne, and among other angels each person was specifically assigned at least one guardian angel.

15:11-32 The Lost Son 15:11-12. To ask one’s father for one’s share of the inheritance early was unheard of in antiquity; in effect, one would thereby say, “Father, I wish you were already dead.” Such a statement would not go over well even in the West today, and in a society stressing obedience to one’s father it would be a serious act of rebellion for which the father could have beaten him or worse (cf. Ex 21:17; Deut 21:18-21). A not unusual response would have been for the father to disinherit the son! That the father grants the request means that most of the hearers will not identify with the father in this parable; from the start, they would think of him as stupidly lax to pamper such an immoral son. Presumably most hearers do not realize at the beginning that Jesus is depicting God’s mercy toward them!

The Roman custom was to divide an estate equally unless a will gave more specific instructions. In the traditional Jewish practice, apart from gifts designated before the father’s death, the eldest son was to receive a

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double portion (Deut 21:17); in this case, he would have received two- thirds of the inheritance (15:31) and the younger brother one-third.

15:13. Jewish *law did permit a father to determine which assets (especially land) would go to which sons before he died, but they could take possession only on the father’s death: the father remained the manager and received the land’s profits until then (cf. 15:22-23, 29). Thus this son could know what would be his but could not ethically (and perhaps legally) sell his assets; he does it anyway.

Many Palestinian Jews migrated, seeking fortune in less economically pressed areas. The younger son is presumably little older than eighteen (he was unmarried) and had an older brother. Moralists, both Jewish and *Gentile, considered squandering a father’s hard-earned assets a terrible crime.

15:14. Famine was a common devastating feature of the ancient economy. (People often viewed famines as divine judgments, but because Jesus’ story does not address the famine area as a whole, it does not apply this perspective to the story line.)

15:15. At this point, many of Jesus’ hearers may be ready for the story to end (like a similar second-century Jewish story and a kind of moral lesson they might tell their children): the son gets what he deserves—he is reduced to the horrendous level of feeding the most unclean of animals. The son might well thus be cut off at this point from any nearby Jewish community and any financial charity it would otherwise offer him.

15:16. The “pods” here are the kind of carob pods fed raw to animals; people roasted and ate them, but subsisted on them only in time of famine. (Thus some Jewish teachers said Israel repented whenever they were driven to eating carob pods.) Given pigs’ proverbially unclean eating habits, the thought of eating pigs’ food would disgust Jesus’ hearers. That the young man is jealous of pigs’ fare also suggests that he is not receiving fair wages (cf. 15:17).

15:17. “Hired men” could be slaves rented for hire but are likelier free servants working for pay; either option suggests that his father is well-to- do.

15:18-19. Jewish people often used “heaven” as a respectful way of saying “God.” The son here returns simply out of hunger and the belief that his father may feed him as a servant, not because he is genuinely sorry that

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he disgraced his father. Given the magnitude of his sin and the squandering of one-third of his father’s life’s earnings, stricter hearers might regard his return as an act of incredible presumption rather than humility.

15:20. It was a breach of an elderly Jewish man’s dignity to run, though familial love could take priority over dignity after a long absence (cf. Tobit 11:9—mother and son). Given the normal garb, the father would have to pull up his skirt to run. Kissing was a conventional greeting for family members or intimate friends; normally it consisted of a light kiss on the lips (easily distinguishable from lovers’ passionate kisses).

15:21-22. The best robe in the house would belong to the father himself. The ring would probably be a family signet ring—hence would symbolize reinstatement to sonship in a well-to-do house. Slaves or impoverished workers often did not wear sandals, though (as here) they carried and tied a master’s sandals. The father is saying, “No, I won’t receive you back as a servant. I’ll receive you only as a son.”

15:23. The calf would be enough to feed the whole village; this would be a big party! Aristocratic families often invited the whole town to a banquet when a son attained adulthood (about thirteen years old) or a child married. If Jesus’ audience envisioned any particular occasion here for which the calf had been fattened, it might be the elder son’s impending wedding, or perhaps even the father’s expectation of the younger son’s return (though the text does not specify the particular occasion for which it was fattened).

15:24. Ancient writers sometimes bracketed off a section of their work by repeating a particular line; this bracketing off is called an inclusio. So far this parable has followed the course of the two that preceded it (15:3-10), but 15:24-32 are bracketed off to address the climactic issue: the elder brother represents Jesus’ religious accusers (15:2).

15:25-28. Dancing was used in both religious and nonreligious celebrations. That the elder brother is apparently the only person in the village (cf. 15:23) uninformed about the party bursts the bounds of plausibility in the real world (where the elder brother should himself have taken the lead at reconciling father and younger son). This touch of un‐ realism is necessary to graphically underline the older brother’s isolation from the community (cf. 15:1-2). Publicly refusing to enter in the midst of a party makes an intrafamily dispute public news, dampening the celebration

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and, worse yet, shaming his father just as the younger brother had, in a culture where honor and shame were essential values. This is also a grievous insult to the father’s dignity and could have warranted discipline or being disinherited (cf. 15:12). Instead of punishing him, however, the father comes out and humbles himself, giving up his honor to seek reconciliation with his son (cf. 15:20).

15:29. Failing to greet one’s father with a title (e.g., “Father”, “Sir”; contrast even 15:12) was a grievous insult to the father’s dignity. This son emphasizes his “service”—even though the father wanted a son rather than a servant (15:19-22). In this context (15:1-2), the elder brother is a transparent analogy for the Pharisees, and the younger brother for the sinners with whom Jesus was eating. A kid (baby goat) offered much less meat than a fattened calf (15:30).

15:30-32. Religious Judaism in this period considered prostitution sinful; both Jewish and non-Jewish sources considered squandering property, especially someone else’s (16:1), sinful.

Although hearers might not consider all the details of the *narrative’s logic, within the narrative logic the elder brother’s response is even worse than modern readers might assume. Because the inheritance had been divided, the elder brother was already assured of his share, effective on the father’s death (15:12); he had nothing to lose economically by his brother’s return, at least not in terms of obligation. The final response of the elder brother is never stated, providing the Pharisees with the opportunity to repent if they are willing.

16:1-13 The Unfaithful Steward 16:1. Many well-to-do landowners had managers to oversee their estates; these managers, or stewards, could be slaves or, as here (16:3-4), free persons. Squandering another’s possessions was considered a particularly despicable crime (cf. 15:13).

16:2-4. Although the master has dismissed this manager, the master gives him some time to get the accounts together before he leaves. The manager uses this time to procure favor for himself with others to whose

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houses he may join himself afterward. Ancients were very conscious of favors they owed; reciprocity was a matter of obligation. The manager uses the master’s authority even though he can no longer legally exercise it.

Both digging and begging were considered undignified professions. Digging was usually performed by captive slaves or those who knew no other skills, and was viewed as the most difficult form of labor.

16:5. These tenants may owe the landowner fixed amounts of their crops. They were not required to pay the sum until harvest. Each of these debtors is wealthier than average in his own right, hence could use a manager in the future.

16:6-7. The measure of olive oil (100 baths, about 850 gallons) represented the yield of nearly 150 olive trees and was worth about 1,000 denarii, no small sum. The measure of wheat (100 cors, about 1,000 bushels) represented the yield of about 100 acres and was worth about 2,500 denarii. The percentages of debt forgiven differ, but roughly the same amount of money is forgiven in each of the sample transactions (about 500 denarii). These renters are all relatively well-to-do in their own right, and thus might make use of a manager themselves in the future.

In hard times, masters would sometimes forgive part of the debt, writing it off as a loss, in return for being considered benevolent.

16:8. All these changes of notes required only small marks on the papers, made by the clients themselves (not incriminating the manager’s own, no longer authorized, hand); and if the projected income thereby appears less, it will be harder to recognize that the master’s profits affected by the manager’s embezzlements are really diminished.

More important, the manager has gained public favor for himself and for the master as a generous benefactor; if the master punishes the manager now, it would appear to the public that he were doing so because of the manager’s benevolent act. The criminal manager could be jailed, but he wisely stakes everything on his master’s honor as a generous man. Ancient stories often portray powerful persons as appreciating and rewarding cunning, even if it had been used against them (“wisely”—KJV—can mean “shrewdly”—NIV, NASB, etc.; cf. Ex 1:10). Some stories (undoubtedly popular among slaves) portray slaves outwitting their masters; although this steward appears to be free (thus “begging” in 16:3), the story line may

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resemble one with which Jesus’ hearers would be familiar. “Children of light” appears in the *Dead Sea Scrolls for God’s special remnant, as opposed to the rest of the wicked world; here the “children of this age” echoes Jewish language for those who live for this age and lack hope for the world to come. There appears to be an implied “how much more” argument (a common ancient Jewish argument): if worldly people can think ahead regarding money, how much more should God’s people do so?

16:9-13. The moral of the story appears to be: Use possessions to serve people, rather than accommodating it for yourself, because you are only God’s managers of anything you have. “Mammon” (KJV) is an *Aramaic word for possessions or money.

16:14-18 The Radical Demands of the Law 16:14. Many *Pharisees may have belonged to the leisured class, but that description applied far more to the *Sadducees. Most Pharisees worked and praised the piety of giving. In this context, however, “lovers of money” refers to all who value money too much to give whatever of it they must to satisfy the human needs around them.

16:15. Jesus here cites a standard *Old Testament principle (1 Sam 16:7; Job 10:4), applicable especially to the practice of religion (Is 1:10-17; 58:1-14; Jer 6:13-14, 20; Hos 4:4-9, 19; 6:6; Amos 5:21-27).

16:16. Jewish people sometimes summarized the Bible as “the Law and the Prophets”; many of them believed that after the era of the prophets the prophetic voice had been muted until the messianic time. Thus John introduces the messianic era.

16:17. Later *rabbis told the story that when God changed Sarai’s name to Sarah, the yod (the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet) that was removed complained to God for generations till he reinserted it in Joshua’s name. Jewish teachers used such illustrations to make the point that the *law was sacred and one could not regard any part as too small to be worth keeping.

16:18. Jewish law permitted men the right of divorce for almost any reason, although many rabbis disapproved of divorcing on slight grounds.

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Jesus’ statement, however, declares that divorce is invalid in God’s sight, so that a subsequent marriage is adulterous. Here Jesus articulates a stronger view of the marriage bond than anyone else we know of in antiquity, and his statement thus intensifies the law of Moses. Like most other statements of general principle in the ancient world (e.g., Prov 18:22 with Prov 11:22; 12:4; 21:9; or Prov 10:15; 13:8; 14:20 with 10:2, 11:4; or 14:24; 16:6 with 15:16; 16:8; 30:7-9; or 11:8; 12:13, 21 with principles such as 2 Tim 3:12), this one does not exclude exceptions (for the innocent party who had no say in the matter, cf. Mt 5:32; 19:9; 1 Cor 7:15). Jesus’ language is probably *hyperbole (see comment on Mt 5:32; 19:9; Mk 10:9); Jesus’ purpose is to protect an innocent party from being divorced, not to punish the party who has been so betrayed. His statement addresses especially the wife because in the traditional custom in Jewish Palestine (in contrast to Roman custom) only the husband had full rights to divorce.

16:19-31 The Rich Man and the Poor Man This story resembles a rabbinic story of uncertain date, except that there the rich man did a good deed and made it into the world to come; here he allows starvation while he lives in luxury, and thus inherits hell. Some details about the afterlife here are standard features of Jewish tradition; a few are simply necessary to make the story line work (acceptable practice in the telling of *parables).

16:19. Purple was an especially expensive form of apparel (cf. comment on Acts 16:14); the lifestyle Jesus describes here is one of ostentatious luxury. Although this man may have become rich by immoral means such as oppressing the poor (as people often did), one cannot simply assume this; the only crime Jesus attributes to him is that he let Lazarus starve to death when he could have prevented it.

16:20. On occasion, Jewish parables (including the rabbinic one mentioned at the beginning of this section) named a character or two. In normal stories, one would expect the rich man rather than the poor man to be named. “Lazarus” is a variant form of Eleazar.

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16:21. Some wealthy people displayed extravagant consumption, careless about what was spilled from their tables. The crumbs here may be regular crumbs or pieces of bread used to sop up the table. Had Lazarus gotten to eat them, these leftovers would still have been insufficient to sustain him. The dogs here appear to be the usual kind Palestinian Jews knew: scavengers, viewed as if they were rats or other unhealthy creatures (also in the *Old Testament, e.g., 1 Kings 14:11; 16:4; 21:24; 22:38). They were considered unclean, and their tongues would have stung his sores.

16:22-23. Jewish lore often speaks of the righteous being carried away by angels; Jesus spares his hearers the traditional corresponding image of the wicked being carried away by *demons. Every person, no matter how poor, was to receive a burial, and not to be buried was seen as terrible (e.g., 1 Kings 14:13). But Lazarus, having neither relatives nor charitable *patron, may not have received one (if we might infer from the contrasting statement about the rich man), whereas the rich man would have received great eulogies. True Israelites and especially martyrs were expected to share with Abraham in the world to come. The most honored seat in a banquet would be nearest the host, reclining in such a way that one’s head was near his bosom.

The term “Hades” simply specifies the realm of the dead (like the Hebrew sheol), but the description of torment makes clear that the rich man is in hell. Greeks envisioned a neutral place of shadowy existence inhabited by most deceased people; a few particularly righteous went to a more blessed place, and a few particularly wicked were tormented in Tartarus. Jewish views were more likely to have a clearer divide, as here. Their views of the place of the wicked, *Gehenna, varied; the image of continuing torment here is among the harshest of views.

16:24-26. Jewish literature often portrayed hell as involving burning. The formerly rich man hopes for mercy because he is a descendant of Abraham (see comment on 3:8), but the judgment here is based on a future inversion of status. Jewish people expected an inversion of status, where the oppressed righteous (especially Israel) would be exalted above the oppressing wicked (especially the *Gentiles), and also believed that charitable persons would be greatly rewarded in the world to come. But this parable specifies only economic inversion, and its starkness would have been as offensive to most first-century hearers of means as it could be to

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many middle-class Western Christians today if they heard it in its original force.

16:27-31. If those who claimed to believe the Bible failed to live accordingly, even a *resurrection (Jesus points ahead to his own) would not persuade them. Jewish literature also emphasized the moral responsibility of all people to obey whatever measure of light they already had. Ancient writers sometimes included foreshadowing, prefiguring later events; in verse 31 Jesus foreshadows future hostility despite his own resurrection.

17:1-4 Proper Relationships 17:1-2. Those who caused others to stumble (“to sin”—ESV, NLT) are as doomed as the rich man of the preceding parable; in contrast, *disciples should look out for one another’s good. “Stumble” was often used metaphorically to refer to sinning or falling away from the true faith. Millstones, used to grind wheat and olives, were extremely heavy, and the term here refers to the heavier kind of millstone turned by a donkey for the community mill, rather than the lighter kind a woman would use for household grinding. Jewish people considered barbaric the Roman punishment of drowning someone in a bag or with a heavy weight; the image is thus all the more dreadful.

17:3-4. Private reproof, *repentance with restitution, and forgiveness were standard doctrines of Jewish piety. Jewish teachers did question the genuineness of repentance if one planned to sin again, but like Jewish legal experts exploring legal principles, Jesus offers here a theoretical case: if a person does genuinely repent repeatedly, you must forgive that person.

17:5-10 The Faith of Servants 17:5-6. Ancient Jewish writers sometimes observed that the roots of the black mulberry (this tree’s usual identification) are spread out, which makes

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it a difficult tree to uproot. It is a strong tree that grows slowly but lives a long time. Mustard seeds were proverbially small.

17:7-10. Except during harvest, field work might end, and the afternoon meal begin, some time after 3 p.m. Most slaveholders had few slaves; thus the slaves did both fieldwork and food preparation. Masters regarded this work as their slaves’ duty, not an option. Nor was it considered honorable for masters to eat with their slaves, and it was virtually never done; even a master eating at the same table with his *freedpersons (former slaves) was rare and noteworthy. The point of the illustration seems to be: Faith grows as one uses it as a servant; its end is service, and it is never an end in itself.

17:11-19 A Samaritan’s Gratitude 17:11-12. Leprosy was an unattractive skin disease (not limited to what is called leprosy today) for which the Bible had prescribed quarantine from the rest of society (Lev 13:45-46), although the Bible did not go so far as many Jewish teachers in blaming the disease on the leper’s sin. Lepers were thus outcasts from the rest of society.

17:13. The lepers approach Jesus with humility, which was the proper *Old Testament way to approach God or one of his representatives for prayer.

17:14. The Bible had prescribed particular sacrifices if someone’s leprosy were cured (Lev 14:1-32). By complying with these regulations, Jesus does nothing to violate the *law or to offend the priests.

17:15-19. On their own terms *Samaritans were quite pious, but Jewish people considered them irreligious, and religious Jews avoided intimate dealings with them (lepers, alienated from both societies, might ignore this barrier). This tension supplies most of the punch of the story. That a Samaritan would travel with Jewish lepers in the area between Samaria and Galilee (v. 11) also illustrates the extremity of lepers’ outcast status: it erases other social distinctions. Ironically, Elisha had healed an outsider leper (Naaman the Aramean, 2 Kings 5) but not the lepers of the city of Samaria (2 Kings 7:3; Lk 4:27).

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17:20-37 The Nature of the Impending Kingdom 17:20-21. Jewish teachers debated whether the *kingdom would come at a predetermined time known only to God, or when Israel repented. Although Jewish people acknowledged that God ruled in the present, most also longed for God’s unchallenged rule, or kingdom, in the future. Jewish teachers disputed when the kingdom would come: either at a set time unknown to mortals, or whenever all Israel repented. By teaching that the kingdom as God’s reign is somehow present, Jesus implies that something of the kingdom—such as the messianic king—is already among them.

17:22. Second-century *rabbis, probably using a wider idiom, sometimes spoke of a future messianic era called “the days of the Messiah.” Some texts spoke of a period (sometimes forty years) when the *Messiah would lead Israel in war against its enemies before the final end; others (more often), that the Messiah would come to reign for a period after those enemies were subdued.

17:23-24. The ultimate coming of the kingdom would not be ushered in by just an earthly war (as some thought) or by earthly messianic figures claiming followings (as many expected), but by a cosmic revelation to all the earth. (Various Jewish texts adopted either scenario.) “In his [Jesus’] day,” if original, may allude to the *Old Testament “day of the Lord,” the final time when God would judge the earth and bring about eternal justice (cf., e.g., Is 13:6, 9; Ezek 30:3; Joel 1:15; 2:1, 11, 31).

17:25. Cf. the context of Daniel 7:13-14 (the future *Son of Man) for suffering preceding glory (in Dan 7:21-22, referring to the *saints).

17:26-27. Jewish literature often used Noah’s generation as a typical image of evil. None of the activities Jesus mentions here is evil (though Jewish teachers regarded some as necessary responses to the evil impulse); but those otherwise preoccupied are taken by surprise, living life oblivious to impending judgment.

17:28-30. Many Jewish texts used Sodom (Gen 19) as a typical image of evil (cf. comment on Lk 10:12) and often linked it with Noah’s generation (cf. comment on 17:26-27).

17:31. The flat rooftop was used for a variety of purposes. Because the stairs from the rooftop led down the outside wall of the house, not inside,

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one need not go inside when descending. This is an image of haste: of forgetting possessions, property and worldly concerns to get to the street and greet the returning king, or to flee impending doom.

17:32-33. When Lot’s wife looked back to her destroyed home in Sodom, it cost her her life, which she should have valued more than her possessions (Gen 19:15-16, 26).

17:34. The Greek language used masculine pronouns if any members of the group were male; thus the “two” likely refers to husband and wife (NIV, against NASB “two men”). Here Jesus undoubtedly refers to one being taken to judgment (as in an analogous second-century story about Israelites and Egyptians in bed during the last plague).

17:35. Part of the Palestinian Jewish woman’s work was grinding at a mill; she would often do this with another woman. These women could normally work together regardless of religious convictions. Provided that the unreligious woman was not violating Pharisaic rules, even the wife of a *Pharisee and the wife of a nontither (whom Pharisees despised) could grind together.

17:37. The *Son of Man’s coming would bring judgment as on Noah’s and Lot’s generations (17:26-30), leaving his enemies as food for vultures (Ezek 32:4-6; 39:17-20), which Jewish people considered a horrible fate (Deut 28:26; 1 Sam 17:44; Ps 79:2). Some commentators have suggested (though the reference seems less likely here) that the “eagles” here refer instead to the Roman standards, which could be represented thus. In A.D. 70 the Romans offered sacrifice to these standards on the site of the temple after they had destroyed it. The image of devouring vultures was, however, widespread.

18:1-8 God the Faithful Judge 18:1-5. Under *Old Testament *law, judges were to fear God (i.e., consider that he will judge those who break his law and mistreat others) and therefore defend the oppressed. Many ancient societies had severe legal penalties for unjust judges, though the judges often got away with their corruption (taking bribes and the like).

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In the law, the widow was the ultimate example of the oppressed person, because she had no means of support (e.g., Ex 22:22-24; Ps 146:9; Is 1:17, 23; Jer 7:6-7). She certainly could not afford a bribe; in Jesus’ *parable here the widow’s opponent may threaten something like taking her land in payment for a debt (cf., e.g., 2 Kings 4:1). Although normally only men spoke in lawcourts and women needed advocates to plead cases for them, when women were so audacious as to speak there they generally commanded attention and sympathy.

18:6-7. This parable is a standard Jewish “how much more” (qal vahomer) argument: if an unjust judge who cared not for widows can dispense justice, how much more will the righteous judge of all the earth, who was known as the defender of widows and orphans, do so? In the context, God would administer his justice especially when Jesus came to judge the earth (17:22-37). The principle is familiar from the Old Testament: God is faithful to act on behalf of and to vindicate his people, by his acts in the present and especially his final day of judgment.

18:8. Many Jewish writers predicted great sufferings in the end time, on account of which many people would fall away from the truth; Jesus warns his own to persevere (17:22-37; 21:8-19, 34-36; 22:31-32, 40, 46).

18:9-14 The Pharisee and the Tax Gatherer 18:9-10. *Pharisees were considered the most pious people in regular Palestinian Jewish society (*Essenes were less involved in society; many lived in the wilderness); *tax gatherers were considered the most despicable, often regarded as traitors to their people. Pharisees did not want tax gatherers admitted as witnesses or given honorary offices. To catch the impact of this *parable today a traditional Christian might think of these characters as the most active deacon or Sunday-school teacher versus a drug dealer, gay activist or crooked politician.

18:11. Jewish people considered it pious to thank God for one’s righteousness, rather than taking credit for it oneself. The first hearers of this parable would not think of the Pharisee as boastful, but rather as grateful to God for his piety.

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18:12. Many of the most pious fasted—without water, despite the health hazard—two full days a week (Mondays and Thursdays); some believe this was only during the dry season. (Considering this pattern of fasting hypocritical, some early Christians insisted on fasting on Wednesday and Friday instead!—Didache 8.1). Pharisees were meticulous about tithing to the full extent one could infer from the *law (several different tithes, together constituting more than twenty percent of one’s income). When they were not certain that the food they purchased had been tithed on, they would tithe it just in case. (Tithes involved a portion of agrarian produce.)

18:13. Standing with eyes and hands lifted to heaven was a common posture of prayer in antiquity (as well as in some other cultures). Beating one’s breast was a sign of great mourning or grief, in this case in *repentance for sin (which in Jewish custom was expressed by mourning). The tax gatherer’s prayer for mercy involves no deliberate act of restitution, and hence many of Jesus’ contemporaries would judge it invalid.

18:14. Jesus’ conclusion to the parable would shock the original hearers (cf. comment on 18:11); it fails to shock many Christians today only because they are so accustomed to the parable. On the future inversion of present roles, cf. 14:11 and 16:25.

18:15-17 The Kingdom Is for Children Children were people of no social status, and the *disciples would not want the important time of their rabbi taken up with blessing them. But Jesus says that the *kingdom belongs to those considered insignificant, those who do not approach it on the merits of their own status.

18:18-30 Sacrificing Wealth for the Kingdom 18:18. Some disciples asked their teachers questions like the one this ruler asks Jesus about *eternal life. To “inherit eternal life” meant to share in the life of the coming world, the life of the *kingdom of God.

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18:19-20. Without denying that he himself is good, Jesus reminds the man of the standard Jewish conception of God’s goodness (others could be good, but no one compared with God); he then lists select commandments from the *Old Testament.

18:21. If only God is good, the man will have to admit he has broken some commandment; but the commandments Jesus lists were kept by most well-raised Jewish people.

18:22-23. Judaism stressed charity heavily, but other Jewish teachers did not normally require a prospective disciple to divest himself entirely of funds. A few teachers, especially some radical Greek teachers (Antisthenes, Zeno and Diogenes), made such demands on rich students to see if they would value true teaching above their wealth. A rich person would occasionally give up his goods, but rich prospective disciples usually disappointed such radical teachers, failing the test of discipleship and returning to their wealth.

18:24. Jesus turns the social order upside down. Often the well-to-do were hailed for their generosity (they had more to give), and the poor, being less educated in the *law, were thought less pious (although poverty itself was not necessarily seen as a sign of impiety, especially by the poor themselves). Many also believed the poor and oppressed to be pious, but many further believed that the rich were wealthy by virtue of God’s blessing.

18:25-27. Jesus’ saying here reflects a Jewish figure of speech for doing something impossible (a large animal going through a needle’s eye). The saying, a *hyperbole, uses the image of a literal needle (not a gate, as some have incorrectly thought).

18:28-30. Though not elite, most of Jesus’ disciples whose professions we know (such as fishermen and, especially, tax gatherers) had not been poor (though the Gospels may be more interested in narrating the exceptional ones) but had abandoned their economic security to follow him. Their reward would be found in believers’ sharing of possessions in this world (cf. Acts 2:44-45) and the life of the kingdom in the world to come.

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18:31-34 Jesus’ Impending Suffering Standard Jewish messianic concepts did not accommodate a suffering *Messiah (most Jewish references to that idea are from the second century or later). Although Jesus saw this idea in the Scriptures (24:44-46), Jewish tradition’s different way of reading the Bible (normally passages about suffering were not applied to the expected triumphant Messiah) makes it difficult for the disciples to fit their belief in Jesus as the Messiah with the plain words he speaks.

18:35-43 Healing a Blind Suppliant 18:35. Most blind and other disabled persons who could not engage in the traditional occupations of the day could secure their living only by begging, normally on a busy roadside. Jewish people considered helping them a righteous deed. Jericho was a prosperous town with a good climate and many wealthy priests living there. This blind man no doubt received ample support there, especially when pilgrims were passing by en route to the festival in Jerusalem.

18:36-38. That the blind man shouts “Son of David” means that he recognizes Jesus as the *Messiah. Jesus characterizes his insistent, obstinate (v. 39) plea for mercy as “faith” (v. 42).

18:39-42. Blind people were socially powerless, and Jesus’ followers see his loud pleas as an intrusion, the way they had seen the children (18:15).

18:43. Other miracle stories in this period frequently ended with the response of the crowds, a response generally characterized—as one would expect after a miracle—by awe.

19:1-10 A Tax Gatherer’s Repentance

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19:1-2. Being a border city, Jericho had a customs station. Because it was also one of the wealthiest cities of Palestine, in the most fertile part of Judea and boasting a Herodian palace, the residence of many wealthy priestly families, other tax income would also be extensive. The “chief” *tax gatherer would be the one who contracted for sales and customs taxes and hired collectors under him. Given this role, Zacchaeus could have become rich without cheating; but it seems that he had cheated anyway (19:8).

19:3-4. For Zacchaeus to be “short” by ancient Mediterranean standards could mean that he was shorter than five feet tall. People often paid more attention to tall people (though Zaccheus by virtue of his office commanded attention). With its pleasant climate year-round, Jericho was especially noted for its palm trees but supported many other trees as well, including the well-known sycamore tree. The kind of “sycamore” tree described here is related to the fig tree and was easy to climb, with large limbs spreading from fairly low on the tree; it is not the North American sycamore or European-Asian sycamore maple. *Old Testament Jericho had many tightly packed houses, but the prosperous city of the *New Testament period had spacious villas and parks, where one could more easily climb a tree than get on a rooftop.

19:5. No matter how high their status, people did not normally invite themselves to someone else’s home. Pious Jews would also be loath to enter the home of a tax gatherer or to eat of his food (which Jesus’ language also implies); because someone unreligious enough to collect taxes would not be careful about tithing his foodstuffs, *Pharisees would not trust what he offered. Jewish people normally considered the ability to call the name of someone one had never met—as Jesus does here with Zacchaeus—to be the sort of thing that only a prophet could do. Because the journey to Jerusalem from Jericho was about seventeen miles uphill (nearly a day’s journey), Jesus may have preferred to let his *disciples rest in a place with sufficient accommodations before continuing their journey.

19:6-8. Zaccheus could not imprison someone on his own authority, but he could make false reports to produce that outcome; his office would thus have given him power to intimidate and secure his demands, if he wished to do so. Zacchaeus’s promise to make restitution recognizes that his white- collar crime is just as serious as other kinds of theft (Ex 22:1-4). His restitution goes beyond the lenient Pharisaic interpretation of the *law,

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which required fourfold or fivefold restitution only for stolen oxen and sheep, only if he slaughtered or sold it, and only if a sufficient number of people witnessed the act. Moreover, Judaism traditionally thought of restitution to receive forgiveness, but here it responds to *grace instead of invites it. In ancient accounts of discipleship, a radical response with possessions was a certain sign of newly acquired devotion to the teacher.

19:9-10. Many Jewish people believed that salvation belonged to almost all Israelites by virtue of their descent from Abraham, except for those who excluded themselves by heinous crimes. In Ezekiel 34:6 and 11, God took over the mission of seeking out the lost sheep because the leaders of his people had failed (less directly relevant, cf. also Wisdom of Solomon 6:16).

19:11-27 Making Use of the Delay 19:11. New Testament Jericho is about seventeen miles from Jerusalem and about a mile south of the site of Old Testament Jericho.

If Jesus was the *Messiah, proclaiming the *kingdom and saying things like salvation was “today” (19:9), Jewish hearers would naturally expect the kingdom right away (17:20; Acts 1:6). The most common expectation of the kingdom would include the subjugation of Rome and other *Gentiles.

19:12. The image Jesus uses here would be familiar: both Herod the Great (40 B.C.) and his son Archelaus (4 B.C.) had to go to Rome to receive their “kingdom,” i.e., the right to rule Judea.

19:13. Each of the slaves was given a mina, the equivalent of about one hundred days’ wages, which they would probably entrust to the moneychangers. Because of exorbitant interest rates in the Greco-Roman world (on one unusual occasion a lender charged a desperate city roughly fifty percent interest) and because only a few people had significant capital, those doing business could quickly multiply their investments.

19:14. What this verse describes happened to Herod’s son Archelaus, who was not at all popular with the people. An embassy of fifty representatives of the people went to Rome to oppose him. Similarly, his father Herod the Great had to fight till 37 B.C. before his kingdom (already officially granted him by the Romans) was securely under his control. Even

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under more direct Roman rule, complaints to Rome about actions of Roman officials could still cause them trouble, but only if Rome was persuaded.

19:15-19. It was not unusual for investors to make returns such as those these servants report; nor was it unusual for rulers to reward profitable servants who proved their administrative skills. Rome allowed its client kings to appoint their own local officials.

19:20. Not only was this servant’s failure to invest the money contrary to the king’s orders and common sense (19:13); he even failed to protect the money, as giving it to money changers, storing it in a temple treasury or even keeping it in a strongbox might have done. Wrapping money in a perishable handkerchief was considered one of the most irresponsible ways to take care of money and suggests that the servant was stupid or treasonous (cf. v. 14), or (most likely) both.

19:21. Objecting that the master “takes out what he does not supply” means that he took money that he had not deposited, perhaps misappropriating funds.

19:22-26. Knowing that the master liked to make money that he had not deposited, the slave should have understood that the master would certainly want good interest from a deposit. Judging one by one’s own words (19:22) was considered appropriate (e.g., 1 Kings 20:40).

19:27. Eastern kings coming to power often disposed of enemies in this manner; Herod the Great had taken some ruthless measures to quell opposition and bring peace, and his son Archelaus likewise brutally retaliated against those who had opposed him.

19:28-40 The Royal Entrance 19:28-29. Messengers were normally sent two by two. When Jesus’ group reaches the Mount of Olives, they are just outside Jerusalem.

19:30-34. Readers might interpret Jesus’ (as king) borrowing the animal in terms of Romans or royal emissaries temporarily impressing (demanding the service of) an animal. The donkey’s owners probably see it as part of the hospitality to visitors to the feast, or perhaps as the honor of helping a famous *rabbi on his way.

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In antiquity the vast majority of people, including Christians, were poor; knowing that their Lord Jesus had to borrow his royal mount probably would have encouraged them.

19:35. Officials used donkeys for civil, not military, processions (1 Kings 1:38). Thus this text is not a triumphal entry in the sense of Roman triumphal processions; it is Jerusalem’s reception of a meek and peaceful king. Jesus chooses to define his kingship in terms of Zechariah 9:9, not the commonly expected role of warrior *Messiah.

19:36-37. Festal pilgrims were often welcomed with shouts of joy, but 19:37-40 suggests that a greater recognition was taking place here.

19:38. With the addition of “the king,” the first part of the people’s cry is taken from Psalm 118:26. The Hallel, composed of Psalms 113–118, was sung regularly during Passover season and would be fresh on everyone’s mind; later generations applied these psalms to the future redemption for which they hoped. Jesus will cite the psalm messianically in Luke 20:17.

19:39-40. “Stones” could mean any stones (3:8), but they may refer to the stones of the temple (see 19:44; 20:17).

19:41-44 Jerusalem’s Doom 19:41-42. Like Jeremiah or another prophet weeping for his people (e.g., Jer 6:26; 8:18–9:3; Lam 1:1-4), Jesus cries out a lament over his people.

19:43. “The days will come” was a common phrase used by *Old Testament prophets (e.g., 1 Sam 2:31; 2 Kings 20:17; Jer 31:31). The Romans besieged and destroyed Jerusalem in the war of A.D. 66–70, roughly forty years after Jesus spoke these words.

19:44. Here Jesus uses standard prophetic *hyperbole; the city was destroyed in A.D. 70 but not completely leveled. Further leveling (including the filling of an entire valley) took place after the Bar Kochba revolt, which was finally suppressed in A.D. 135. The Old Testament spoke of God “visiting” (KJV, NASB, NRSV; cf. “coming to”—NIV) his people in acts of deliverance or judgment (e.g., Is 23:17); here the term refers to Jesus’ mission.

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19:45-48 Transforming the Temple See the more extensive comment on Mark 11:15-19.

19:45. Sellers were needed in the temple so foreign Jews could buy sacrifices to offer there. Psalms, prophets and Jewish teachers in Jesus’ day agreed that prayer and a pure heart counted for more than sacrifices but did not oppose sacrifices per se. Jesus presumably would oppose not sacrifices (cf. Acts 21:26) but an emphasis on ritual without the true relationship with God that he had demanded in his own teaching (cf. Lk 19:47). Even if he clears out the whole temple, however, the sellers will not stay out.

19:46. One text Jesus cites in part, Isaiah 56:7, refers to the future restored temple when even pious *Gentiles would come to worship in the temple; but instead the temple has become like the “robbers’ den” of Jeremiah 7:11. Jeremiah called it that because Israel thought the temple was a refuge from divine judgment despite the people’s sins; injustice was taking place in the land, but the people did not expect judgment because of their ritual piety (Jer 7:1-15).

19:47. Other teachers also taught in the temple courts. The Jewish aristocracy who controlled the temple had vested interests in keeping down would-be *Messiahs (usually revolutionaries) and anyone who challenged the temple. Defiling the sacred inner courts of the temple was the one offense for which the Romans permitted the Jewish authorities to execute an automatic death penalty. Although Jesus’ action in the outer court would not actually qualify as defiling the sacred precincts, it must have enraged the authorities and served as a direct challenge to their power there.

19:48. These leaders had official authority, but they lacked the measure of popularity with the common people in Jewish Palestine that the Pharisees and Jesus possessed.

20:1-8 On Whose Authority? 20:1-2. People lectured in temples, which were public places. Verbal challenges in public staked the honor of both challenger and challenged on

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the outcome. The powerful priestly aristocracy who ran the temple exercised their own authority over it; they would know that Jesus has not received the authority from themselves or from the Romans. They would not accept any other human authorization as legitimate, nor regard other humans as divinely authorized; they presumably believed that God had authorized them rather than someone else to be in charge of the religious aspects of the temple. They would regard Jesus as a serious troublemaker from Galilee, dangerous (yet to be handled gently) because he was a populist demagogue. Elites in antiquity complained about demagogues who swayed the masses instead of appealing to aristocratic sentiments like “honorable” people should.

20:3-4. Jesus’ question about John the Baptist concerns the principle of agency: in Jewish *law, an authorized agent acted on behalf of the sender, backed by the sender’s full authority. “Heaven” was a Jewish circumlocution for God.

20:5-8. The temple authorities, who had to please the Romans on the one hand and the populace on the other, were already accustomed to considering the political consequences of their statements.

20:9-18 Judgment on Evil Leaders Jesus still addresses those who fancy themselves rulers of Israel, reminding them that they are merely custodians appointed by God over his vineyard (like the shepherds over God’s flock of Jer 23 and Ezek 34).

Wealthy landowners controlled much of the rural Roman Empire, including many rural parts of Galilee; tenant farmers worked their land. Landowners had great status, whereas tenant farmers had little; tenants were therefore normally quite respectful to the owners.

20:9. Absentee landlords were common. 20:10. Payments were rendered at harvest time. Some contracts

specified that the tenants would pay the landowner a percentage of the harvest; other contracts called for a fixed amount.

20:11-12. Landowners always had power, socially and legally, to enforce their will on the tenants; a few even reportedly had hit squads to

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deal with troublesome tenants. Here the tenants act as if they are the ones with power, and they exploit it mercilessly (as opposed to the ancient ideal of a benevolent *patron or landowner). This description fits the Jewish tradition that Israel martyred many of the prophets God sent to it.

20:13. The expression “beloved son” emphasizes the father’s great affection for the son, increasing pathos if he were lost (cf. Gen 22:2). In the light of 3:22, the “beloved son” clearly represents Jesus. Ancient hearers of the *parable would regard the landowner as abnormal; naively benevolent, he counted on a kindness in his tenants that their behavior had already disproved. Rich or poor, all hearers at this point would agree that the landowner was in the right, and that he was benevolent—indeed, strikingly, foolishly benevolent.

20:14-15. The tenants presume too much about the inheritance; although they could have seized it under certain legal conditions, the owner could also stipulate—and after their misdeeds certainly would—that someone else inherit the vineyard; or representatives of the emperor could have seized it. If a dead body were left in a vineyard, it would render the harvested food impure if the food got wet (traditional Jewish interpretation of Lev 11:38).

20:16. Ancient hearers would wonder why the landowner had not come earlier and killed the tenants. The people’s negative response is only because they know how Jesus is applying it—against their own leaders (v. 19).

20:17. Here Jesus cites Psalm 118:22-23, another text from the Hallel (the crowd referred to 118:25-26 in Lk 19:38). The building here is the temple (Ps 118:18-21, 25-27); as the cornerstone of a new temple, Jesus is a threat to the builders of the old one. (Herod used priests to construct the temple, but we need not press the analogy of “builders” so far.)

20:18. “Falling on” the cornerstone reflects Isaiah 8:14-15 (cf. 28:16); the stone falling on the offender reflects Daniel 2:34, 44, where God’s *kingdom, portrayed as a rock, crushes its earthly challengers. Jesus here uses a standard Jewish practice of expounding one text (cf. Lk 20:17) by citing others sharing the same key word or concept, in this case, the divine stone.

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20:19-26 Both Sides of the Coin 20:19-21. Here Jesus’ opponents seek to force him to choose between revolution—which would get him in trouble with Rome—and accommodation to the Romans—which they suppose he opposes (because he opposed their leadership in the temple).

20:22. They pit the obligations of peace with Rome against the nationalistic, messianic fervor that they assume Jesus has generated; a disastrous tax revolt two decades earlier had shown where such fervor could lead. If he publicly takes the view characterized by those later called *Zealots (no king but God), he can be arrested; if he rejects that view (which he does), he may compromise his following (cf. 23:18-19).

20:23-26. Jewish Palestine circulated its own copper coins, which bore the name but not the image of the deified emperor. Nonetheless, foreign coins, which bore the emperor’s image and mention of his divine status, were in common circulation in Palestine, where neither gold nor silver coins were permitted to be struck. Revolutionaries in A.D. 6 had violently protested the use of such coins and incurred terrible Roman retaliation.

20:27-40 God of the Living 20:27. In ancient Palestinian Judaism the *Sadducees were especially notorious for not believing in *resurrection, and *rabbis who considered themselves successors of the *Pharisees classified Sadducees as heretics for this view.

20:28. The Sadducees’ question to Jesus concerns the law of levirate marriage, practiced in many cultures both in antiquity and today. It provides economic and social protection to widows in societies where women cannot earn wages. Students of Jewish *law were still expounding this *Old Testament principle (Deut 25:5) in Jesus’ day and afterward.

20:29-32. The Sadducees borrow the story line from the Jewish book of Tobit, where the jealous *demon Asmodeus killed righteous Sarah’s first seven husbands (though they were not brothers).

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20:33. Later *rabbinic literature is full of examples of the “mocking question” posed by pagans, apostates or heretics like the Sadducees.

20:34-36. Jewish people widely agreed that angels did not procreate (they did not need to replenish their numbers, because they did not die, and also because, in some other traditions, God regularly created new angels), nor did they normally eat or drink.

20:37-38. Against their Sadducean opponents the Pharisees commonly tried to prove the resurrection from the law of Moses; Jesus here does the same. He argues (using Ex 3:6; cf. 3:15-16; 4:5) that God would not claim to be the God of those who no longer exist; indeed, his faithfulness to his covenant demands that if he is their God after death, death is not the final word for them. One of the most common Jewish prayers of the period recites God’s faithfulness to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as a living reality for their own time (cf. also *4 Maccabees 7:19; 16:25).

20:39-40. Contemporary literature commonly reports hearers being overawed by a wise speaker’s (usually the protagonist’s) wisdom.

20:41-44 David’s Lord By definition, the Christ, or anointed one, was the royal descendant of David (Is 9:7; 11:1; Ps 2; 89; 132). But this view of *messiahship often lent itself to a revolutionary view of the *kingdom (see comment on 17:20-24) and was inadequate. The one who would reign in God’s kingdom was David’s “Lord” (Ps 110:1) not merely his descendant (cf. Ezek 34:24; 37:24); he would thus be greater than the resurrected David (cf. Is 9:6-7).

When Jewish teachers challenged their hearers to resolve apparent discrepancies in Scripture, they assumed that both texts were true (in this case, Jesus knows that he is both David’s son and David’s Lord) and were asking how to harmonize them. Jesus’ opponents apparently have no answer, because other Jewish interpreters did not apply Psalm 110:1 to the Messiah (reacting against the Christian interpretation, some later Jewish interpreters even applied this text to Abraham).

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20:45–21:4 The Powerful and the Weak Some Jewish teachers were so concerned to prevent the exploitation of the poor that they criticized collectors of charity who asked for contributions from the poor. But then, as now, some individuals used their religion to exploit others.

20:45-46. Like their Greek counterparts, some Jewish teachers wore a special identifying garb, in this case a long, white linen robe, similar to those of priests and temple officials. People normally greeted teachers with titles of honor; marketplaces, which were full of people, would provide many opportunities for teachers to receive such recognition. Seating at banquets marked one’s rank in society.

20:47. Widows had little means of support, were socially powerless and were to be protected under Jewish *law (see comment on 18:1-5). Jesus could mean that these teachers exploit widows’ resources by seeking extensive tithes (which they could set at twenty to thirty percent, on top of the heavy land taxes levied by the government); or he could mean that they follow the letter of the law toward creditors in legal decisions, rather than showing mercy to the poor as the law also required.

These teachers may have lingered long in their individual prayers in the *synagogues; here Jesus criticizes not the length of prayers but the motive for this length. Like the *Old Testament prophets (e.g., Is 1:11-17; Amos 5:21-24), Jesus sees social injustice and religious hypocrisy as inextricably linked. Both examples here reveal selfish hearts.

21:1-4. A later tradition claims that thirteen receptacles for gifts to the temple treasury were in the Court of Women, accessible to Israelite women as well as to men. Because of the annual temple tax on all Jewish adult males, the temple now sported ostentatious wealth (such as a golden vine; *Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 15.394-95), and its officials would probably waste this widow’s money; but this powerless woman, presumably ignorant of that likelihood, acts in good faith and is the greatest giver in God’s sight.

21:5-7 Introduction to the Discourse on the Future

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Jesus draws much of the language of this discourse from the *Old Testament.

21:5. The Jerusalem temple was one of the most splendid structures of all antiquity and seemed strong and invincible (cf., e.g., *Letter of Aristeas 100-101); cf. comment on Mark 13:1.

21:6. Other groups also expected the temple to be judged, but most Jews, regardless of their other differences, found in the temple a symbol of their Jewish unity and would have been appalled to think that God would allow it to be destroyed (as in Jer 7:4-15). Some stones in the retaining structure were left on others (e.g., one wall still stands; not in the temple proper), but this fact does not weaken the force of the prophetic *hyperbole: the temple was almost entirely demolished in A.D. 70—roughly forty years after Jesus predicted it (Lk 21:32).

21:7. Old Testament prophets often grouped events together by their topic rather than their chronological proximity, and Jesus in this discourse does the same. He addresses two separate questions: the time of the temple’s destruction and the time of the end.

21:8-19 Imminent Sufferings 21:8. Various false messiahs and messianic-type leaders modeling themselves after Moses or Joshua arose in the first century; such figures drew significant Jewish followings in Palestine as late as Bar Kochba, whom Rabbi *Akiba hailed as the *Messiah after A.D. 130.

21:9-11. Ancient *prophecy teachers usually listed these sorts of events among the signs of the end; the end was often portrayed as preceded by great sufferings or a final war. (Jesus’ list omits some other omens cited by his contemporaries, such as babies born with animal heads.) Jesus says that instead these events characterize normal life until the end.

21:12-15. Synagogues were the local places of public assembly and thus provided the natural place for hearings and public discipline. Sometimes discipline was administered in the form of flogging; under second-century rules, this meant thirteen harsh strokes on the breast and twenty-six on the back. Prisons were usually holding places until a trial rather than places of

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punishment; punishments included execution, enslavement, banishment, confiscation of property and so forth. “Kings” could refer just to Rome’s vassal princes, but could also suggest that Parthian and other rulers from the East are also in view. People in the Roman Empire knew of other parts of the world as far apart as Iceland (probably), Tanzania, India and China; in the second century, some merchants from the Roman Empire traveled to what is now Vietnam. The proclamation and consequent persecution therefore may be widespread.

21:16. See Micah 7:5-7. In a culture with a heavy emphasis on family fidelity, betrayal by a family member would sound especially harsh (though such problems as court disputes over inheritances show that the ideal was not always achieved).

21:17-19. Here Jesus offers a promise of protection (cf. 1 Sam 14:45; 2 Sam 14:11). Because hundreds, probably thousands, of Christians had been publicly murdered under Nero in Rome in A.D. 64, probably less than two decades before Luke wrote, it is clear that this is hyperbolic, not an unqualified promise (9:23-24; 21:16). (With the majority of scholars I assume that Luke did not write before A.D. 64, although the case for this date is not conclusive.) This promise suggests either spiritual survival (12:4-5) or that God will often deliver physically, as in many cases in the *Old Testament (e.g., Dan 3:27).

21:20-24 The Fall of Jerusalem 21:20. Luke’s language is less ambiguous than Mark’s “abomination of desolation”: the war with Rome began in A.D. 66, and soon Roman armies had marched through the rest of Palestine and surrounded Jerusalem, then laid siege to it until it fell in A.D. 70. Those who tried to flee shortly after Jerusalem was surrounded found that it was too late; some who escaped the Jewish revolutionaries inside Jerusalem were cut open by Syrian recruits outside, who were looking for jewels they might have swallowed.

21:21. The mountains of Judea were the safest place to evade invading armies, as the people in Judea had often learned (e.g., David and the

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second-century B.C. Maccabean guerrillas). When people in the countryside saw approaching armies, they often fled to the safety of city walls; but Rome would not break its siege, and those trapped within Jerusalem’s walls would be doomed (v. 24).

21:22. The prophets often spoke of judgment against Jerusalem. God would come in a day of vengeance (e.g., Is 34:8; 61:2; 63:4; Jer 46:10; 51:6) or days of vengeance (Hos 9:7), and in some cases the prophets spoke of God’s vengeance against his own unfaithful people (e.g., Jer 5:9, 29; 9:9). Although the prophets usually pointed especially to the Babylonian captivity (about six centuries before Jesus), their principle of judgment and their demand for *repentance before ultimate restoration was still applicable.

21:23. The difficulties of bearing or nursing a child under these circumstances are obvious in any culture. The text may also indicate grief over the loss of the children (cf. *2 Baruch 10:13-15). The language of “great distress” echoes prophecies about tribulation that would precede Israel’s final repentance (Dan 12:1). The *Old Testament repeatedly describes God’s judgments in history as “wrath” (e.g., on Jerusalem—Lam 1:12), as well as his future wrath in the day of the Lord (e.g., Zeph 1:14- 15).

21:24. All the inhabitants of Jerusalem died in the war (by famine, disease, burning, Jewish factional fighting or fighting with the Romans) or were enslaved in the year 70. Jerusalem was left in ruins; after the second destruction in A.D. 135, Jerusalem was rebuilt as a pagan city, with a pagan temple on the site where God’s temple had been. “Times of the *Gentiles” presumably refers to the period of Jerusalem’s or the Jewish people’s subjugation under other nations; many Jewish people envisioned a succession of four evil empires (cf. Daniel 7), Rome being the final one, before the *kingdom of God would come and deliver them from evil.

21:25-38 Be Prepared The destruction of Jerusalem constitutes the final, universally visible earthly sign before Jesus’ return; after this sign, Christ’s followers should

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be ready for his imminent return. 21:25-26. *Josephus and writers dependent on him spoke of portents in

the heavens preceding the fall of Jerusalem. These portents were meant to give the wicked cause to fear (Is 19:16; Jer 4:9). This is the language of the end (how most Jewish people in this period understood Is 13:10; 34:4; cf. 24:23; Ezek 32:7-8). Some ancient Jewish literature used this cataclysmic language for historical events (the *Sibylline Oracles use it for an earthquake; cf. Ps 18:6-19; Jer 4:20-28), but most reserved it for the end or transformation of the present world order and the establishing of God’s eternal *kingdom.

21:27. Jesus sometimes describes the *Son of Man’s coming in terms Jewish literature usually reserved for God (cf. Is 19:1). Here Jesus clearly alludes to Daniel 7:13-14, where “one like a son of man” (i.e., like a human being) receives the kingdom from God.

21:28. Unlike others, believers need not fear these heavenly signs (Jer 10:2); they merely signal that “redemption” is near. Jewish teachers sometimes debated whether the Jewish people could hasten the kingdom or whether it would come only in a time dictated by God. During the revolts against Rome, Jewish patriots declared the arrival of their “redemption,” or liberation from Rome; but Jesus teaches that this redemption will come solely from heaven’s intervention.

21:29-31. The signs Jesus lists show that the end is imminent, just as a fig tree’s leaves show what season it is. (In winter the fig tree appeared more bare than other trees.)

21:32. The length of a generation varied but was often represented in the *Old Testament by forty years (in the *Dead Sea Scrolls, forty years represents the suffering of the final generation). Jesus speaks these words near A.D. 30; the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70.

21:33. Sometimes God made promises that he noted would endure even if heaven and earth passed away (Jer 31:35-37); God’s words would not pass away (*Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities 11:5). Jesus thus speaks as God here.

21:34-36. “Strength to escape” (v. 36) could refer back to the escape of verse 21 or to enduring the persecutions of verses 12-19; “standing before the Son of Man” may mean persevering or being presented triumphant

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before him. For this use of “snare” or “trap” as judgment imagery, cf. perhaps Is 8:14; 24:17-18; Jer 48:43-44; 50:24; Ezek 12:13; 17:20.

21:37. As sundown approached, about 6 p.m. in April, fewer and fewer people would be in the temple courts. Because thousands of pilgrims came to the Passover feast, many had to stay in surrounding villages at night. Although eating the Passover in Jerusalem, as was expected, Jesus lodged in Bethany (Mk 11:11-12), about three kilometers east of Jerusalem on the southeastern slopes of the Mount of Olives.

21:38. “Early in the morning” could mean as early as sunrise, which would be by 6 a.m. in Jerusalem in April.

22:1-13 Preparing the Passover 22:1. The Jewish Feast of Passover was technically followed immediately by the Feast of Unleavened Bread; but because pilgrims made one trip to Jerusalem to celebrate both of them, in popular parlance they had come to be described as a single entity (e.g., in *Josephus).

22:2-6. Jewish literature reports that the *high priests bullied those who opposed them; against some popular misconceptions, the Gospels are no more anti-Jewish for their reports of high-level corruption and abuses than are the ancient *rabbis, *Dead Sea Scrolls and Josephus who report the same sort of behavior by the priestly aristocracy. (Indeed, many scholars today believe that Josephus even mentions the Jewish aristocrats alongside the Romans as involved in Jesus’ execution; despite later Christian editing, much of Jewish Antiquities 18.63-64 is original.) The aristocratic priests who dominated Jerusalem’s municipal elite would certainly not tolerate someone who claims that God has directed him to attack their temple cult. But they have to be cautious due to Jesus’ popularity (22:2; cf. comment on 20:5-7).

22:7. See comment on 22:1. 22:8-9. Representatives from each family would have the priests

slaughter a lamb for them in the temple, then return with it to feed the whole family that night after sundown.

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22:10. Commentators note that water jars (as opposed to leather wineskins) were almost always carried by women; thus a man carrying one could be a noticeable sign. In well-to-do households (as apparently here), however, slaves would carry the water. Running water was a great luxury, and in many cities people would collect water at public fountains.

22:11-13. Anyone with a two-story home, the second of which contained a “large” upper room (not merely a small dwelling), would be considered well-to-do. This family presumably resided in the Upper City of Jerusalem, near the temple, rather than the poorer Lower City, downwind of Jerusalem’s sewage. Because the Passover had to be eaten within Jerusalem’s walls, most homes would be crowded with guests; but the accommodations for Jesus’ last meal with his *disciples would be quite adequate.

22:14-23 Eating the Passover Both the preparation for Passover and its eating are mixed with promises and foreshadowings of the betrayal, because the Passover here itself prefigures Jesus’ death. Following the *Old Testament prophets, Judaism looked for a new exodus when God would again deliver his people from bondage, although contemporary Judaism was looking for a new Moses— not a new lamb.

22:14. The Passover was to be eaten at night. April’s sundown in Jerusalem came by 6 p.m., so the meal should have started then. Table fellowship was intimate at the feast; one or two families normally shared the meal, but here Jesus and his closest disciples make up the family unit. Palestinian Jews in this period “sat” for most meals but “reclined” for feasts, like Passover.

22:15-16. Vows of abstinence (also 22:18) were common in Palestinian Judaism: “I will not eat any such and such until this happens,” or “I vow that I will not use this until that happens.” Jewish tradition often portrayed the time of the *kingdom as a banquet. It was customary to give thanks over the cup of wine at regular meals and also at Passover.

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22:17-19. The head of the household customarily gave thanks for the bread and wine before any meal but said special blessings over bread and wine in the Passover meal. We should not understand “This is my body” literally, just as we do not take literally the standard Jewish interpretation spoken over the Passover bread: “This is the bread of affliction our ancestors ate when they came from Egypt.” The thought instead is of a sort of memorial (as in Ex 12:14), but, as with the Passover, one in which one symbolically re enacted, hence participated in, the past act of redemption. Those who did not understand it in these terms would have imagined it as cannibalism, a custom that horrified most people in the Mediterranean world (cf. Jn 6:52); that misinterpretation later became a pagan accusation against Christians.

22:20. Covenants were ratified by the blood of sacrifice; “covenant in . . . blood” probably evokes Exodus 24:8, “the blood of the covenant.” Here, however, a “new covenant” is in view (see also 1 Cor 11:25), echoing Jeremiah 31:31. God had also redeemed his people from Egypt by the blood of the Passover lamb. Passover ritual interpreted most elements of the meal and included blessings over the cup. But the ritual certainly did not interpret the cup as blood, because Jewish *law and custom were revolted by the idea of drinking any creature’s blood, especially human blood.

22:21. Ancient Jewish readers would view betrayal by one sharing a meal as particularly scandalous, because they saw hospitality and the sharing of table fellowship as an intimate bond, initiating a covenant of friendship, often lifelong.

22:22-23. Most people in ancient Judaism stressed both God’s sovereignty and human free will, which they saw as complementary. (Modern views that see them as contradictory are based more on Greek logic than on Jewish thought or the Bible.)

22:24-30 Exaltation of the Servants 22:24-25. Jewish people were well familiar with the *Gentile model of authority: ancient Near Eastern kings had long claimed to be gods and had ruled tyrannically; Greek rulers had adopted the same posture through much

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of the eastern Mediterranean. Jewish people would view the Roman emperor and his provincial agents (who often showed little concern for Jewish sensitivities) in much the same light. Rulers and others who doled out favors from the vantage point of power were called “benefactors”; the practice of benefaction was widely praised in Greek circles, appearing pervasively in public inscriptions. Jesus’ reminding the disciples that seeking power is a Gentile (i.e., pagan) practice is tantamount to telling them they should not be doing it.

22:26. In antiquity age often determined rank; the youngest had the least respect. Even a socially powerful slave remained subordinate to the master (applicable even to slaves who wielded more power than peasants and others who were socially inferior to their masters).

22:27. Slaves waited on masters at table. (Although servants are probably in view here, in households without servants the female members of the family prepared and served the food.) “Reclining” was the standard Greek posture for eating, which Palestinian Jews adopted at feasts.

22:28-30. Jewish literature often portrayed the *kingdom as a future time when Israel would partake of a banquet prepared for them (cf. already Is 25:6, for all peoples); a standard Jewish expectation for that time was that the lost tribes of Israel would be restored. Those who “judged” Israel in the *Old Testament ruled it.

22:31-38 Preparing for the Betrayal 22:31-32. Wheat would be sifted to separate the genuine wheat from other items that had gotten mixed in with it; for the image, see Amos 9:9. For winnowing away the chaff, see comment on Matthew 3:12. The background for *Satan’s demand is presumably Job 1:6-12 and 2:1-6, where Satan tries to prosecute Job before the heavenly court (the Hebrew text has “the satan,” literally “the adversary,” i.e., the accuser).

22:33-34. Ancient sources typically regarded the rooster as a reliable reporter of the advent of dawn (attested by *Apuleius, Metamorphoses 2.26; *3 Maccabees 5:23; Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 60b). But commentators report that in Palestine nocturnal crowings are familiar to

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night watchmen beginning at 12:30 a.m.; the second was about 1:30 a.m.; roosters often crow during the night. In either case the point is that the denial is imminent.

22:35. See comment on 9:3. 22:36-38. By mentioning the “sword” here Jesus is not inviting

revolution like the *Zealots and other revolutionaries did (cf. *Pseudo- Phocylides 32-34). Instead, Jesus calls for a temporary and symbolic act— two are sufficient (v. 38)—so he may be charged as a revolutionary and hence “reckoned among transgressors” in accordance with Isaiah 53:12. (On the messianic import of Is 53, see comment on Mt 12:15-18.) To be without one’s outer cloak at night would leave one cold; yet Jesus suggests that it is better than being unprepared for the conflict these disciples are about to face.

22:39-46 The Prepared and the Unprepared 22:39. The walk from the upper room to the Mount of Olives took at least fifteen minutes.

22:40. They may have arrived at Gethsemane by 10 or 11 p.m. (which was normally considered late in the evening, because agriculture and business operated by daylight). Jewish people customarily stayed awake late on Passover night to speak of God’s redemption. The *disciples should have been able to stay awake to keep watch; they had probably stayed up late on nearly every other Passover of their lives.

“Temptation” here means “testing”; given the common Jewish religious uses of the word, Jesus is saying: “lest you fall prey to the testing you are about to face.”

22:41-42. On the “cup of judgment,” see comment on Mark 10:39. 22:43-46. The disciples are to “stand watch” like porters (slaves in

charge of the door) or sentries. Some ancient texts report the rare phenomenon of sweating blood; Luke’s variant may intend this phenomenon (sometimes mentioned today in connection with extreme stress) or simply that Jesus’ sweat is profuse and dripping the way blood would.

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22:47-53 The Betrayal 22:47. Because they had been sent by prominent men of Jerusalem, the band that comes to arrest Jesus is probably the temple guard. This guard is known to have possessed the weapons mentioned here (swords and clubs); clubs were said (by later rabbis) to have characterized the corrupt priestly aristocracy, as well as being useful in controlling rioters.

22:48. A kiss was a sign of special affection among family members and close friends, or of a disciple’s honor and affection for his teacher. Thus Judas’s betrayal kiss is a special act of hypocrisy (cf. Prov 27:6).

22:49-50. Being well-to-do, *high priests had many servants. Although the servant mentioned here is probably not a Levite and is thus unable to minister in the temple anyway, some note that those who were missing appendages such as ears were barred from serving in the sanctuary. This attack on this servant would confirm the armed (22:47) expedition’s suspicions that Jesus’ followers are violent revolutionaries (22:36-38).

22:51. Many people associated leaders who were thought to be messiahs with popular revolt and the overthrow of the Gentile kingdoms that oppressed Israel; a *Messiah who would heal his attackers was not part of anyone’s messianic picture at the time.

22:52-53. Subversives (e.g., the later assassins who slew Jewish aristocrats under cover of the crowds in the temple) did their acts secretly or in a way that would avoid capture; Jesus’ alleged subversion was public and unconcealed. Here it is Jesus’ enemies, not Jesus, who acts under the cloak of darkness. Night was commonly associated with evil and crime; in popular superstition (later found in rabbinic teaching as well), night was the time when the *demons ruled and witchcraft operated.

22:54-62 Peter’s Denials 22:54. This trial breaks a number of Jewish legal rules, if later documents correctly indicate the state of Jewish *law in this period. Taking Jesus to the

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*high priest’s home at night breached ancient legal protocol (Jewish and Roman).

22:55. Peter’s trespassing on the high priest’s property (even an outer court) required serious commitment from a Galilean fisher man. Household watchman and temple guards wait to learn the results of the trial inside. They may have planned to stay up late for Passover anyway, as was the custom.

22:56-58. Slaves in aristocratic households exercised more power and status than the average free person. Although the high priest had many servants, the slave girl would recognize that Peter and the guards are not from the household; further, Peter was not dressed like one of the guards. As a servant in an aristocratic priestly household near the temple, she may have been at the temple, where she could have gotten a good look at Jesus’ disciples in the temple courts.

22:59. Galilean accents differed from Judean accents, certainly in *Aramaic and presumably (as undoubtedly here) in Greek; Galileans were especially noted for mispronouncing guttural sounds. The high priest’s servants and temple guard lived in Jerusalem and would see themselves as Judeans. Regional accents were difficult to hide (cf. Judg 12:6).

22:60-62. For most people in the ancient Mediterranean, a rooster’s crowing marked daybreak. Some scholars have suggested that this crowing refers to an earlier Palestinian rooster crowing between 12:30 and 2:30 a.m.

22:63-71 The Decree of the Sanhedrin 22:63-65. Jewish *law (as preserved in the more Pharisaic tradition of the later rabbis) permitted public flogging of a condemned person; it did not permit the treatment described here—mocking and beating—certainly not before a person had been proved guilty in a trial. Jewish law meticulously guarded the rights of the accused and erred on the side of mercy in official decisions; thus the behavior described here would have revolted the *Pharisees and other pietists. Jesus’ words could not even be construed as blasphemy by the strict definitions of later rabbis (possibly held by

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Pharisees in this period). Like most ancient elites, however, the priestly aristocracy would not feel bound to such rules.

22:66. By at least waiting till morning for an official hearing (as opposed to any informal interrogations that may have taken place earlier), those representatives of the Sanhedrin present maintained some semblance of legality in the proceedings; night trials were illegal and would not be respected even by honorable Roman governors.

“Leading priests,” “elders” and “*scribes” were three groups represented on the Sanhedrin, the ruling religious court of Israel. In later tradition the full Sanhedrin had seventy-one members, normally assembled in a meeting hall in the temple called the Chamber of Hewn Stone, where they sat in a semicircle with the high priest in the center. The number may have been simply an average, and Josephus, writing in the first century, suggests that they met quite close to the temple, but not in it. In any case, although the body acted as a whole, not all its members concurred (23:51); writers would often make a general statement about a group without listing explicit exceptions (cf. Jer 26:16, 24).

22:67-68. If extant reports of ancient Jewish law are accurate, the high priest could not legally force Jesus to convict himself out of his own mouth. Nevertheless, he asks whether Jesus thinks of himself as a *messiah— hence, to the high priest’s mind, as a revolutionary. A prophet could speak the truth while doubting that his hearers would accept it (Jer 38:15).

22:69. Jesus’ response is a claim to be not a merely mortal messiah but the cosmic ruler of Daniel 7:13-14. “Power” was sometimes used as a Jewish title for God; Luke simplifies the phrase for his Greek readers as “power of God.”

22:70-71. The religious authorities serve as their own witnesses that Jesus claims to be a subversive, a revolutionary (23:2). Although codified only later, the spirit of Jewish law resisted condemning a prisoner by his own admission, but Jesus’ critics here treat Jesus’ words not as admission of an offense, but as an offense itself. Although they might construe Jesus’ words as “blasphemy” for purposes of the court, they also seemed to confirm suspicions about Jesus politically—the issue in which Pilate would be interested (23:2).

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23:1-12 Accusations Before Pilate and Herod 23:1. The visit to *Pilate would be early in the morning, because Roman officials met the public only from sunrise to before noon.

23:2. “King Messiah” became a standard title of the *Messiah in later *rabbis; “Messiah” meant simply “anointed one,” but in popular parlance it was most often used for the king from David’s line who would be associated with the restoration of the *kingdom to Israel.

Despite 20:22-25, the leaders interpret Jesus’ messianic claim the only way they know how: according to the category of prophetic revolutionaries. Such revolutionaries had become common in their day; some leaders among them appeared to be potential messianic figures, a pattern that would climax in Bar Kochba, the purported messianic warrior who would lead his people to a bloody defeat in A.D. 132–135. Such political messiahs threatened the religious authorities’ power and security and were especially troublesome to Rome. In addition to genuine revolutionaries, a number of prophets gathered followings, expecting God to intervene for Israel; but Rome regarded even predictions of an emperor’s demise as treason. All such popular movements threatened the aristocratic priests’ base of power and the nation’s stability.

23:3-4. Pilate apparently understands Jesus’ claim in a religious or philosophic rather than a political sense and therefore does not feel that it comes under Roman civil jurisdiction. Further, Pilate’s relationship with the priestly aristocracy is known to have been strained. On Luke’s theme of Roman authorities exonerating Christians, see the discussion of Luke’s legal purpose in the introduction to Acts.

23:5. A Galilean had led the tax revolt of A.D. 6; Judeans also tended to view Galileans as inferior to themselves, although some of Galilee was urban and much of it was in touch with the larger Mediterranean culture, as Jerusalem was.

23:6-7. Herod Antipas would be in Jerusalem for the feast and was probably staying at the old Hasmonean (Maccabean) palace. Pilate had the authority to try Jesus if he had committed a crime in Pilate’s area of jurisdiction; but sometimes the right of extradition was allowed, and

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Antipas might thus be free to try Jesus for a crime committed in Galilee. By refusing jurisdiction, Pilate could take the matter off his own hands.

23:8-10. This Herod was the one who had murdered John; cf. comment on Mark 6:14-29. Many people wanted to see signs; in some popular stories (notably a later one in *Apuleius), their curiosity got them in trouble with sorcerers. Of the four Gospels, only Luke reports two hearings before the governor separated by one before a Herod; Acts reports two trials of Paul before procurators with a trial before another Herod, Agrippa II. Ancient Greco-Roman historians liked to point out parallels between related figures in history.

23:11. The “bright” or “elegant” (NIV, NRSV) robe may be a white one, characteristic of Jewish kings. This apparel would be an appropriate mockery from Antipas’s bodyguard.

23:12. Herod and Pilate had had plenty of opportunities to become alienated; for instance, Antipas had intervened in a matter concerning votive shields (reported in *Philo, Embassy to Gaius 299-300); on another occasion Pilate had pilfered the temple treasury for funds for an aqueduct; even the event of Luke 13:1 could have been the provocation. Giving the ambitious Herod Antipas a sign of influence in Jerusalem would certainly create a “friendship,” which in upper classes often meant a political alliance.

23:13-25 Pilate and the Crowds 23:13-17. On the Lukan motif of Roman authorities exonerating Christians, see the introduction to Acts.

23:18-25. As a clearly violent revolutionary, Barabbas appeared to Pilate to be a greater danger than Jesus. Romans were known for their emphasis on justice, but Romans were also politicians concerned with crowd control: the emperor himself pacified the masses with shows in the arena and free grain, and public outcry had previously forced Pilate to withdraw the Roman standards from Jerusalem. For many Roman governors, efficiency in ruling provinces and keeping peace took precedence over individual justice; for instance, a Roman soldier who had

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burned a *law scroll was executed to pacify Jewish antagonism, not because the Romans cared about burning their religious book.

23:26-32 Road to the Cross 23:26. Condemned criminals normally bore their own crosses (i.e., the horizontal beam of the cross), but in this case someone else is drafted, perhaps due to the severe precrucifixion beating often administered, which the other Gospels report Jesus had received (cf. also Lk 18:33).

Cyrene was in what is now Libya in North Africa and included a large Jewish community; “Simon” is a Greek name often used by Jewish people (because it sounded like the patriarch Simeon). Devout Jewish pilgrims from throughout the Mediterranean world came to Jerusalem during Passover. Roman soldiers could impress anyone into service to carry things for them. Because it is a feast and work is forbidden, Simon is not coming from “the field” (literally) as a worker; perhaps he is late for the festival, only now arriving from Cyrene, or perhaps he has rejoined the day’s festivities from where he is residing temporarily in the countryside.

23:27. Authorities used executions as public warnings, and crowds generally went to view an execution. Later rabbinic tradition claims that the pious women of Jerusalem often went to mourn the executed, providing a narcotic drink to dull the victim’s pain. (Rulers sometimes forbade funerals and public mourning for condemned persons; but nationalistic Jews would sympathize with fellow Jews executed by the Romans for being revolutionaries.) In antiquity women usually expressed mourning more dramatically than men.

23:28. “Daughters of Jerusalem” designates Jerusalemite women (e.g., Song 1:5; 2:7; 3:5) but could also recall some judgment oracles (Is 3:16-17; 4:4). The admonition to “mourn for yourselves” was also a prophetic cry of judgment (Is 32:9-14; Joel 1:5).

23:29. Jesus’ statement is the sort of lament mothers would offer when their children died (*2 Baruch 10:13-15). *Josephus reports that some mothers were reduced to eating their children during the famine in Rome’s

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siege against Jerusalem, A.D. 66–70 (cf. Lev 26:29; Deut 28:53; 2 Kings 6:29).

23:30. The prophets had used the same image Jesus uses here as an image of awful judgment (cf. Hos 10:8; Is 2:10, 19-21). Jesus especially uses Hos 10:8, changing the wording only slightly.

23:31. Unlike a green one, a dry tree would easily catch fire. The point may be that Jesus is “green” wood, not really a revolutionary; how much greater would be the Roman judgment against the dry wood, the real revolutionaries? Or that if they murdered the innocent, how much more would they destroy themselves (Jewish leaders fought one another as well as the Romans in 66–70)? Or the saying may simply mean that Jerusalem is becoming more ripe for judgment. Jesus may also allude back to the trees and Jerusalem’s fall in 21:24, 29-30, though this option seems less likely.

23:32. Authorities preferred to execute people on festivals, when the executions would warn the greatest number of people against rebellion. It was also less work for the soldiers if they could execute several convicts at once.

23:33-43 On the Cross 23:33. The site of the crucifixion might have been named “Place of the Skull” because so many deaths occurred there. The traditional “Calvary” (KJV) is from Latin calvarius, “skull.”

23:34. Despite the precedent of *Old Testament prayers for vengeance (e.g., 2 Chron 24:22; Ps 137:7-9; Jer 15:15; 17:18; 18:23; 20:12), Jesus prays that God will forgive his persecutors. Those who were executed were supposed to say, “May my death *atone for all my sins”; but Jesus confesses instead the sin of those who falsely convicted him, who under Old Testament *law were liable for his penalty before God. Ancient biographers often paralleled different figures, and Luke parallels with Jesus the first martyr of his second volume, Stephen (Acts 7:60). Roman custom awarded the soldiers the victim’s clothes. People in antiquity made many decisions by means of casting lots (see comment on Acts 1:26).

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23:35. Ridicule was one of the sufferings inflicted on the naked man hanging on a cross. Ancient writers often liked irony; the double irony here is that Jesus does save others, and that the leaders utter lines like *Satan’s (4:3, 6-7, 9).

23:36. One might view the soldiers’ offer of “sour wine” or “wine vinegar” (NIV) as an act of mercy, because sour wine could act as a painkiller and was also often used as a remedy for thirst; but Luke declares that it is done only as part of their ridicule. That some is on hand is not surprising; soldiers and others used it because it quenched thirst better than water and was cheaper than normal wine.

23:37. The soldiers’ taunt may include a touch of *Gentile cynicism toward Judaism, which was widespread despite (or partly because of) Roman conversions to Judaism.

23:38. The condemned person or a member of the execution squad sometimes carried the charge (Latin titulus) to the site of execution.

23:39-41. Jesus’ interaction with his fellow victim is Luke’s ultimate example of Jesus receiving sinners and outcasts, although Luke (unlike Mark) has called them “evildoers” or “criminals” (NIV) without specifying that they were revolutionaries.

23:42. A request to “remember” the supplicant could mean to look out for them once one was able (cf. Gen 40:14). To “enter his kingdom” was to begin to reign; at the cross, only clear-sighted faith could recognize that this dying rabbi Jesus would genuinely reign as *Messiah, true king of the Jews.

23:43. Jewish literature typically contrasted “paradise” (the “garden of Eden”) with “*Gehenna,” or hell. Although Jewish texts disputed the location of paradise (e.g., in the third heaven; or on the perimeters of the circle of the earth—like a Greek view of the Elysian Fields), they often mentioned it as the abode of the righteous after death or after the *resurrection. Thus both Jesus and this condemned man would proceed directly to the abode of the righteous after death.

23:44-49 Jesus’ Death

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23:44. “All the earth” (KJV) means simply “the whole land” (NIV, NRSV; “the whole country” GNT cf. Mt 9:26). The “sixth hour” would come shortly before noon, the “ninth hour” shortly before 3 p.m.; crucifixions rarely ended so quickly. The latter time, when Jesus dies, is close to the time of the evening offering in the temple. Darkness was one of the plagues in Egypt (Ex 10:22) and occurs in the prophets as a judgment for the end time (often due to clouds of rain, locusts, smoke, etc.; Is 13:10; Ezek 30:3, 18; 32:7-8; Joel 2:2, 10, 31; 3:15; Amos 5:18; Zech 14:6). An eclipse (cf. 23:45) was considered particularly ominous, especially when it occurred at length and in the middle of the day (the sun was said to be at its peak at midday); cf. Amos 8:9.

23:45. The “veil” (KJV, NASB) or “curtain” (NIV, GNT, NRSV) is probably the one between the holy of holies—inhabited only by God, and where no mortal could enter except the *high priest once each year—and the sanctuary where the priests ministered (Ex 26:33). Some believe that the point of the veil’s rending is that God provides access for all people into his presence; others argue that it is more likely that it indicates instead the departure of God from the temple, as in Ezekiel 10–11.

23:46. This line from Psalm 31:5 is said to have often been recited at the period of the evening offering—about the time of Jesus’ death.

23:47. Whereas Mark has “*Son of God,” Luke emphasizes an implication of that claim: “innocent.” Roman pronouncements of innocence were important to Luke’s audience; see the introduction to Acts. Soldiers of the Roman army stationed in Palestine were auxiliaries mostly recruited from the eastern Mediterranean, especially from Syria. Although the centurion may be ethnically Syrian, however, for Luke’s hearers he would represent Rome.

23:48. Beating breasts was a characteristic sign of mourning (cf. 18:13; Jer 31:19; Nah 2:7), like other mourning activities such as tearing one’s hair and throwing dust on one’s head). Jewish women bystanders would offer this as the only public mourning these criminals could get, because none was normally permitted after the disposal of their bodies.

23:49. Family and friends would usually be present at an execution; probably only the male *disciples would be in danger as potential revolutionaries. No one stood too close to the cross, because that could

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obstruct the view; most crosses were lower to the ground than many modern pictures depict. To Palestinian Jews, the fact that these women accompanied Jesus’ group of disciples could have been scandalous.

23:50-56 Jesus’ Burial 23:50-51. Luke, whose readers are not clashing with Palestinian Jewish leaders (as are Matthew’s), is more apt to distinguish different elements within that leadership than is Matthew. In Jesus’ day, Judaism was quite diverse, because no one group could lay claim to all the power; but after A.D. 70, when much of the competition had been eliminated by the destruction of the temple (the *Sadducees’ power base) and the scattering of other groups, some other members of the Palestinian Jewish elite sought to consolidate their religious power.

23:52-53. Condemned criminals did not normally receive such honorable burials; but exceptions seem to have been made on the intercession of well-to-do family or friends, as the skeleton of a crucified man buried in another aristocratic Jewish tomb of this period testifies.

23:54-56. Because bodies decomposed rapidly, mourners were allowed to anoint, wash and wrap the body in its shrouds even on the sabbath. More elaborate arrangements that these loyal women *disciples wish to bestow on Jesus, however, might wait until the sabbath (sundown Friday evening to sundown Saturday evening) has passed.

24:1-12 The First Announcement 24:1. The sabbath ended at sundown Saturday evening; as soon as daylight breaks (by 6 a.m. at this time of year) these women head for the tomb. (In popular superstition, night was dangerous due to the predominance of *demons at that time, but the women probably do not travel at night because it would be too hard to find the tomb, which was outside the city walls on unfamiliar terrain.) Spices may not have been used for everyone

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but were often used for the bodies of special persons (e.g., Herod). They reduced the immediate stench of rapid decomposition in the normally hot Mediterranean days. After one day and two nights, the women could expect that the body would already stink. But Jerusalem is over two thousand feet above sea level and is cool enough in April that in a sealed tomb the body would have still been approachable.

24:2-3. The stone was probably a large, disk-shaped stone rolled along a groove in front of the tomb. That it had been rolled back could have suggested tampering or a tomb robbery, although nothing valuable had been buried with the body. More likely, just outside Jerusalem, it could suggest seizure by the authorities.

24:4-5. Angels often appeared as human beings in the *Old Testament (Josh 5:13) and also often appeared in radiant garments or bodies (cf. 2 Kings 6:17; Dan 10:5-6). The latter was especially the case in contemporary Jewish texts (i.e., in the expectations of the people to whom this revelation is being given).

24:6-12. Part of the reason for the *apostles’ unbelief is that a *resurrection of this nature contradicted their messianic expectations; another reason may have been that many men considered the witness of women nearly worthless, because they regarded women as unstable and undependable. (These opinions appear, e.g, in *Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 4.219 and Justinian, Institutes 2.10.6, as well as Mishnah Yevamot 15:1, 8- 10; 16:7; Ketubbot 1:6-9; Tosefta Yevamot 14:10; Sifra Vayyiqura Dibura Dehobah pq. 7.45.1.1.)

24:13-35 The Emmaus Appearance 24:13. Sixty stadia was about seven miles. Apparently more than one place in Palestine was called Emmaus (1 Maccabees 3:57; 4:3; Josephus reports a different one). The exact site of Luke’s Emmaus is no longer known.

24:14-17. Jewish travelers would not consider it unusual for a stranger, who is also a fellow Jew, to join their small company walking for some distance, especially if they assume him to be a Passover pilgrim on his way home. People normally conversed as they walked; later *rabbis favored

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discussion about the Torah. Jesus’ feigning ignorance to ask a question does not mean that he does not know the answer (cf. Gen 3:9, 11; 4:9-10). On their lack of recognition, see comment on 24:31-35.

24:18. News spread quickly by word of mouth, and public executions at a feast would be widely discussed. No matter where a Greek-speaking pilgrim visiting Jerusalem for the feast was from, he or she would probably have heard something about these matters. (The description of Cleopas’s surprise resembles, for example, astonished characters in ancient stories confronting people awakening from many years of sleep and unaware of recent events.) Unless he speaks with emotional *hyperbole, however (which is possible), Cleopas appears to suppose too much to presume that everyone would regard these events as the most obvious of the past several days.

24:19-21. Cleopas’s words reflect the confusion all Jesus’ followers must have felt: Jesus was a prophet, as in the *Old Testament, or maybe the *Messiah; but the religious leaders of the nation, who of all people should have embraced and followed him, had rejected him (like some prophets of old). In Galilee and outside Palestine, where the priestly aristocracy was not as directly known as in Judea, respect for the temple leadership no doubt ran higher.

24:22-24. See comment on 24:6-12. 24:25-27. If we may infer his subjects from the texts used elsewhere in

Luke-Acts and in early Christianity, plus obviously messianic texts, Jesus surely includes references to Deuteronomy 18:15-18, Isaiah 9, 11 and 53; for suffering preceding exaltation, Isaiah 53:12 might be key. The implication, however, is that Jesus adduced principles applying to his messiah ship from throughout the Old Testament. (Luke may supply samples of the intended references in some speeches in Acts; these could also include analogies with Old Testament savior figures, as in Acts 7, where some suffered before being exalted.) Later *rabbinic literature regularly praised interpreters with deep insight into Scripture, such as that Jesus demonstrates here.

24:28. It is polite for Jesus to make as if he would go on, unless they invite him to stay with them; such behavior could also test a person’s hospitality (Gen 19:2).

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24:29. Hospitality demanded no less than the lodging these *disciples offer Jesus, especially because it is approaching sundown; night travel, particularly as one got farther from Jerusalem, would be dangerous due to robbers, and it would be difficult to see. Jewish people throughout the ancient world welcomed fellow Jews who were traveling to spend the night, and insistence was part of hospitality (e.g., Judg 19:5-9; 1 Sam 28:23).

24:30. It was also part of hospitality to offer bread to a guest, no matter how late in the evening (see comment on 11:5-6). After the long walk, these disciples would be hungry anyway, and all three are travelers. But by breaking and giving bread to them, Jesus takes the role usually held by the head of the household, which he had exercised among his disciples.

24:31-35. Greeks told stories of supernatural beings who could change shape or disguise themselves or others. More relevantly, in Jewish sources angels were sometimes said to come in disguises and reveal themselves only at the end of their mission (e.g., Raphael to Tobit and Tobias in the book of Tobit). But this was not the case with humans, including dead persons restored to earthly life in the Old Testament. Although one reason these disciples do not recognize Jesus may be that their eyes have been blinded (24:31; cf. 2 Kings 6:17), Jesus’ subsequent disappearance also seems to indicate that he has a new kind of body, the sort of body promised the righteous in the future resurrection.

24:36-43 The Nature of Jesus’ Resurrection 24:36-38. Because the *resurrection of all the dead had not yet occurred, the disciples think Jesus might be a “ghost” or some other spirit. On the popular level, some people held a belief in ghosts (cf. Mk 6:49) without considering that it contradicted the idea of afterlife in paradise or hell (*Gehenna) and the doctrine of the bodily resurrection. But Jesus assures them that he is not an example of a ghost but of the bodily resurrection.

24:39-40. Some victims were tied onto crosses; others were nailed on. The nails would have been driven through the wrists (which could be called part of the hand). A nail through the ankles may not have been common (there does appear to be evidence from an excavated example), but there

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was nothing to have kept soldiers from doing it. Roman execution squads were left to their own ingenuity to devise various creative ways to torture their dying victims.

24:41-43. In most Jewish traditions, angels did not eat earthly food. Spirits had no need for food.

24:44-53 The Final Commission 24:44-46. See comment on 24:25-27. Although Scripture could be summarized by other divisions (e.g., the Law and the Prophets; 16:16), other Jewish writings mention the threefold division of the *Old Testament, as here. Jewish interpreters sometimes spoke of God “opening their eyes” to his truths, language with Old Testament precedent (Ps 119:18). Although the Gospels report Jesus’ disagreement with his contemporaries on many issues, every stratum of Gospel tradition reports his appeal to the Old Testament to define his mission. Although he may have disagreed with many of his contemporaries on Old Testament interpretation, he agrees with them concerning its authority. Luke does not elaborate Jesus’ teaching here, but probably alludes to what he believes was its content in some speeches in Acts (e.g., Acts 7:2-53; 13:16-47).

24:47-48. Isaiah spoke of Israel being witnesses to (or against) all the nations in the end time (43:10; 44:8), by means of the endowment of the *Spirit (42:1; 44:3). The Spirit (mentioned in the parallel passage in Acts 1:8) was especially associated with the ability to prophesy, to speak as God inspired a person to speak.

24:49. Jewish people sometimes spoke of being “clothed” with spiritual qualities (e.g., 1 Chron 12:18 [literally; Heb. and Gk. 12:19]; Sirach 17:3). Given the parallel with these verses in Acts 1:4-8, “power from on high” may echo Isaiah 32:15, where the Spirit is poured out “from on high.”

24:50. Priests lifted their hands to give the priestly benediction over the people (“May the Lord bless you, and keep you . . .”—Num 6:24-27).

24:51. See comment on the ascension in Acts 1:9-11. 24:52-53. Many of the temple courts were used for prayer. Ancient

writers often framed literary units by starting and ending on the same point;

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Luke frames his whole Gospel by starting and ending it in the temple.

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