Lukas 6:38

6:38 Give, and it will be given to you: A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, ¹  will be poured ²  into your lap. For the measure you use will be the measure you receive.” ³ 

Lukas 7:9

7:9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed ⁴  at him. He turned and said to the crowd that followed him, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith!” ⁵ 

Lukas 18:11

18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ⁶  ‘God, I thank ⁷  you that I am not like other people: ⁸  extortionists, ⁹  unrighteous people, ¹⁰  adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ¹¹ 

[6:38]  ¹ sn The background to the image pressed down, shaken together, running over is pouring out grain for measure in the marketplace. One often poured the grain into a container, shook it to level out the grain and then poured in some more. Those who are generous have generosity running over for them.

[6:38]  ² tn Grk “they will give”; that is, “pour.” The third person plural has been replaced by the passive in the translation.

[6:38]  ³ tn Grk “by [the measure] with which you measure it will be measured back to you.”

[7:9]  ⁴ tn Or “pleased with him and amazed.” The expanded translation brings out both Jesus’ sense of wonder at the deep insight of the soldier and the pleasure he had that he could present the man as an example of faith.

[7:9]  ⁵ sn There are two elements to the faith that Jesus commended: The man’s humility and his sense of Jesus’ authority which recognized that only Jesus’ word, not his physical presence, were required.

[18:11]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ sn The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God, but the praise ended up not being about God.

[18:11]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Or “swindlers” (BDAG 134 s.v. ἅρπαξ 2); see also Isa 10:2; Josephus, J. W. 6.3.4 [6.203].

[18:11]  ¹⁰ sn A general category for “sinners” (1 Cor 6:9; Lev 19:3).

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