Lukas 10:25-29

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

10:25 Now ¹  an expert in religious law ²  stood up to test Jesus, ³  saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ⁴  10:26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you understand it?” ⁵  10:27 The expert ⁶  answered, “Love ⁷  the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, ⁸  and love your neighbor as yourself.” ⁹  10:28 Jesus ¹⁰  said to him, “You have answered correctly; ¹¹  do this, and you will live.”

10:29 But the expert, ¹²  wanting to justify ¹³  himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Lukas 15:29

15:29 but he answered ¹⁴  his father, ‘Look! These many years I have worked like a slave ¹⁵  for you, and I never disobeyed your commands. Yet ¹⁶  you never gave me even a goat ¹⁷  so that I could celebrate with my friends!

Lukas 18:9-12

The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector

18:9 Jesus ¹⁸  also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down ¹⁹  on everyone else. 18:10 “Two men went up ²⁰  to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee ²¹  and the other a tax collector. ²²  18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ²³  ‘God, I thank ²⁴  you that I am not like other people: ²⁵  extortionists, ²⁶  unrighteous people, ²⁷  adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ²⁸  18:12 I fast twice ²⁹  a week; I give a tenth ³⁰  of everything I get.’

Lukas 18:21

18:21 The man ³¹  replied, “I have wholeheartedly obeyed ³²  all these laws ³³  since my youth.” ³⁴ 

[10:25]  ¹ tn Grk “And behold.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic. The Greek word ἰδού (idou) at the beginning of this statement has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[10:25]  ² tn Traditionally, “a lawyer.” This was an expert in the interpretation of the Mosaic law (see also Luke 7:30, where the same term occurs).

[10:25]  ³ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:25]  ⁴ sn The combination of inherit with eternal life asks, in effect, “What must I do to be saved?”

[10:26]  ⁵ tn Grk “How do you read?” The pronoun “it” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[10:27]  ⁶ tn Grk “And he”; the referent (the expert in religious law, shortened here to “the expert”) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[10:27]  ⁷ tn Grk “You will love.” The future indicative is used here with imperatival force (see ExSyn 452 and 569).

[10:27]  ⁸ sn A quotation from Deut 6:5. The fourfold reference to different parts of the person says, in effect, that one should love God with all one’s being.

[10:27]  ⁹ tn This portion of the reply is a quotation from Lev 19:18. The verb is repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[10:28]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “And he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[10:28]  ¹¹ sn Jesus commends the reply (you have answered correctly). What is assumed here, given the previous context, is that he will respond to Jesus’ message, as to love God is to respond to his Son; see v. 22.

[10:29]  ¹² tn Grk “And he”; the referent (the expert in religious law, shortened here to “the expert”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:29]  ¹³ tn Or “vindicate.”

[10:29]  sn The expert in religious law picked up on the remark about the neighbor and sought to limit his responsibility for loving. Some believed this obligation would only be required toward the righteous (Sir 12:1-4). The lawyer was trying to see if that was right and thus confidently establish his righteousness (wanting to justify himself).

[15:29]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “but answering, he said.” This is somewhat redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “but he answered.”

[15:29]  ¹⁵ tn Or simply, “have served,” but in the emotional context of the older son’s outburst the translation given is closer to the point.

[15:29]  ¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “yet” to bring out the contrast indicated by the context.

[15:29]  ¹⁷ sn You never gave me even a goat. The older son’s complaint was that the generous treatment of the younger son was not fair: “I can’t get even a little celebration with a basic food staple like a goat!”

[18:9]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “He”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:9]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “and despised.” This is a second parable with an explanatory introduction.

[18:10]  ²⁰ sn The temple is on a hill in Jerusalem, so one would go up to enter its precincts.

[18:10]  ²¹ sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.

[18:10]  ²² sn See the note on tax collectors in 3:12.

[18:11]  ²³ tn Or “stood by himself and prayed like this.” The prepositional phrase πρὸς ἑαυτόν (pros eauton, “to/about himself”) could go with either the aorist participle σταθείς (staqeis, “stood”) or with the imperfect verb προσηύχετο (proshuceto, “he prayed”). If taken with the participle, then the meaning would seem at first glance to be: “stood ‘by himself’,” or “stood ‘alone’.” Now it is true that πρός can mean “by” or “with” when used with intransitive verbs such as ἵστημι ({isthmi, “I stand”; cf. BDAG 874 s.v. πρός 2.a), but πρὸς ἑαυτόν together never means “by himself” or “alone” in biblical Greek. On the other hand, if πρὸς ἑαυτόν is taken with the verb, then two different nuances emerge, both of which highlight in different ways the principal point Jesus seems to be making about the arrogance of this religious leader: (1) “prayed to himself,” but not necessarily silently, or (2) “prayed about himself,” with the connotation that he prayed out loud, for all to hear. Since his prayer is really a review of his moral résumé, directed both at advertising his own righteousness and exposing the perversion of the tax collector, whom he actually mentions in his prayer, the latter option seems preferable. If this is the case, then the Pharisee’s mention of God is really nothing more than a formality.

[18:11]  ²⁴ sn The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God, but the praise ended up not being about God.

[18:11]  ²⁵ tn Here the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) is used as a generic and can refer to both men and women (NASB, NRSV, “people”; NLT, “everyone else”; NAB, “the rest of humanity”).

[18:11]  ²⁶ tn Or “swindlers” (BDAG 134 s.v. ἅρπαξ 2); see also Isa 10:2; Josephus, J. W. 6.3.4 [6.203].

[18:11]  ²⁷ sn A general category for “sinners” (1 Cor 6:9; Lev 19:3).

[18:11]  ²⁸ sn Note what the Pharisee assumes about the righteousness of this tax collector by grouping him with extortionists, unrighteous people, and adulterers.

[18:12]  ²⁹ sn The law only required fasting on the Day of Atonement. Such voluntary fasting as this practiced twice a week by the Pharisee normally took place on Monday and Thursday.

[18:12]  ³⁰ tn Or “I tithe.”

[18:21]  ³¹ tn Grk “And he”; the referent (the ruler mentioned in v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[18:21]  ³² tn Grk “kept.” The implication of this verb is that the man has obeyed the commandments without fail throughout his life, so the adverb “wholeheartedly” has been added to the translation to bring out this nuance.

[18:21]  ³³ tn Grk “these things.” The referent of the pronoun (the laws mentioned by Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:21]  sn While the rich man was probably being sincere when he insisted I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws, he had confined his righteousness to external obedience. The rich man’s response to Jesus’ command to give away all he had revealed that internally he loved money more than God.

[18:21]  ³⁴ sn Since my youth. Judaism regarded the age of thirteen as the age when a man would have become responsible to live by God’s commands.