translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: LUK

label: NET study note

text: This is one of the few parables that comes with an explanation at the start: … they should always pray and not lose heart . It is part of Luke’s goal in encouraging Theophilus ( 1:4 ).


text: The judge here is apparently portrayed as a civil judge who often handled financial cases.


text: This widow was not necessarily old, since many people lived only into their thirties in the 1st century.


text: Listen to what the unrighteous judge says! The point of the parable is that the judge’s lack of compassion was overcome by the widow’s persistence.


text: The prayers have to do with the righteous who cry out to him to receive justice. The context assumes the righteous are persecuted.


text: The issue of delay has produced a whole host of views for this verse. (1) Does this assume provision to endure in the meantime? Or (2) does it mean God restricts the level of persecution until he comes? Either view is possible.


text: Will he find faith on earth? The Son of Man is looking for those who continue to believe in him, despite the wait.


text: The temple is on a hill in Jerusalem, so one would go up to enter its precincts.


text: See the note on Pharisees in 5:17 .


text: See the note on tax collectors in 3:12 .


text: The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God , but the praise ended up not being about God.


text: A general category for “sinners” ( 1 Cor 6:9 ; Lev 19:3 ).


text: Note what the Pharisee assumes about the righteousness of this tax collector by grouping him with extortionists, unrighteous people , and adulterers .


text: 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.


text: The prayer that was heard and honored was the one given with humility; in a surprising reversal it was the tax collector who went down to his home justified .


text: Everyone who exalts himself. See Luke 14:11 . Jesus often called for humility and condemned those who sought honor.


text: The kingdom of God is a major theme of Jesus. It is a realm in which Jesus rules and to which those who trust him belong. See Luke 6:20; 11:20; 17:20-21 .


text: The kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Children are a picture of those whose simple trust illustrates what faith is all about. The remark illustrates how everyone is important to God, even those whom others regard as insignificant.


text: On receive see John 1:12 .


text: The point of the comparison receive the kingdom of God like a child has more to do with a child’s trusting spirit and willingness to be dependent and receive from others than any inherent humility the child might possess.


text: Only Luke states this man is a ruler (cf. the parallels in Matt 19:16-22 and Mark 10:17-22 , where the questioner is described only as “someone”). He is probably a civic leader of some kind, a leader in the society.


text: The rich man wanted to know what he must do to inherit eternal life , but Jesus had just finished teaching that eternal life was not earned but simply received ( 18:17 ). See the similar question about inheriting eternal life in Luke 10:25 .


text: Jesus’ response, Why do you call me good? , was designed to cause the ruler to stop and think for a moment about who Jesus really was. The following statement No one is good except God alone seems to point the man in the direction of Jesus’ essential nature and the demands which logically follow on the man for having said it.


text: A quotation from Exod 20:12-16 and Deut 5:16-20 . Jesus cited the parts of the ten commandments that relate to how others should be treated.


text: 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.


text: See Luke 14:33 .


text: See Luke 1:50-53; 6:20-23; 14:12-14 .


text: The call for sacrifice comes with a promise of eternal reward: … you will have treasure in heaven . Jesus’ call is a test to see how responsive the man is to God’s direction through him. Will he walk the path God’s agent calls him to walk? For a rich person who got it right, see Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10 .


text: For the rich it is hard for wealth not to be the point of focus, as the contrast in vv. 28-30 will show, and for rich people to trust God. Wealth was not an automatic sign of blessing as far as Jesus was concerned.


text: The eye of a needle refers to a sewing needle, one of the smallest items one might deal with on a regular basis, in contrast to the biggest animal of the region. (The gate in Jerusalem known as “The Needle’s Eye” was built during the middle ages and was not in existence in Jesus’ day.) Jesus is saying rhetorically that this is impossible, unless God (v. 27 ) intervenes.


text: The assumption is that the rich are blessed, so if they risk exclusion, who is left to be saved ?


text: The term impossible is in the emphatic position in the Greek text. God makes the impossible possible.


text: Jesus reassures his disciples with a promise that (1) much benefit in this life ( many times more ) and (2) eternal life in the age to come will be given.


text: Note that Luke (see also Matt 19:29 ; Mark 10:30 ; Luke 10:25 ) portrays eternal life as something one receives in the age to come , unlike John, who emphasizes the possibility of receiving eternal life in the present ( John 5:24 ).


text: The passive voice verb be handed over does not indicate by whom, but other passages note the Jewish leadership and betrayal ( 9:22, 44 ).


text: See Luke 22:63; 23:11, 36 .


text: And spat on. Later Luke does not note this detail in the passion narrative in chaps. 22-23 , but see Mark 14:65; 15:19 ; Matt 26:67; 27:30 where Jesus’ prediction is fulfilled.


text: This failure of the Twelve to grasp what Jesus meant probably does not mean that they did not understand linguistically what Jesus said, but that they could not comprehend how this could happen to him, if he was really God’s agent. The saying being hidden probably refers to God’s sovereign timing.


text: Jesus was more than a Nazarene to this blind person, who saw quite well that Jesus was Son of David . He understood what Luke 7:22-23 affirms. There was a tradition in Judaism that the Son of David (Solomon) had great powers of healing (Josephus, Ant. 8.2.5 [8.42-49]).


text: Have mercy on me is a request for healing (cf. 17:13 ). It is not owed the man. He simply asks for God’s kind grace.


text: That is, those who were at the front of the procession.


text: Public opinion would not sway the blind man from getting Jesus’ attention. The term shouted is strong as it can be used of animal cries.


text: The presence of God’s work leads again to joy, with both the beggar and the people praising God ( 1:64; 2:20; 5:25-26; 7:16; 13:13; 17:15; 19:37 ).