translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: LUK

label: NET study note

text: This is the one place in the NT the office of chief tax collector is noted. He would organize the other tax collectors and collect healthy commissions (see also the note on the word tax collector in 3:12 ).


text: A sycamore tree would have large branches near the ground like an oak tree and would be fairly easy to climb. These trees reach a height of some 50 ft (about 15 m).


text: I must stay. Jesus revealed the necessity of his associating with people like Zacchaeus ( 5:31-32 ). This act of fellowship indicated acceptance.


text: On today here and in v. 9 , see the note on today in 2:11 .


text: Being the guest of a man who is a sinner was a common complaint about Jesus: Luke 5:31-32; 7:37-50; 15:1-2 .


text: Zacchaeus was a penitent man who resolved on the spot to act differently in the face of Jesus’ acceptance of him. In resolving to give half his possessions to the poor, Zacchaeus was not defending himself against the crowd’s charges and claiming to be righteous. Rather as a result of this meeting with Jesus, he was a changed individual. So Jesus could speak of salvation coming that day (v. 9 ) and of the lost being saved (v. 10 ).


text: This is one of the few uses of the specific term salvation in Luke ( 1:69, 71, 77 ), though the concept runs throughout the Gospel.


text: The household is not a reference to the building, but to the people who lived within it (L&N 10.8).


text: Zacchaeus was personally affirmed by Jesus as a descendant ( son ) of Abraham and a member of God’s family.


text: The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost is Jesus’ mission succinctly defined. See Luke 15:1-32 .


text: Luke means here the appearance of the full kingdom of God in power with the Son of Man as judge as Luke 17:22-37 describes.


text: Note that the receiving of the kingdom takes place in the far country. This suggests that those in the far country recognize and acknowledge the king when his own citizens did not want him as king (v. 14 ; cf. John 1:11-12 ).


text: The background to this story about the nobleman who went … to receive for himself a kingdom had some parallels in the area’s recent history: Archelaus was appointed ethnarch of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea in 4 b.c. , but the people did not like him. Herod the Great also made a similar journey to Rome where he was crowned King of Judea in 40 b.c. , although he was not able to claim his kingdom until 37 b.c.


text: That is, one for each. A mina was a Greek monetary unit worth one hundred denarii or about four months’ wages for an average worker based on a six-day work week.


text: The Greek verb earned refers to profit from engaging in commerce and trade (L&N 57.195). This is an examination of stewardship.


text: The faithful slave received expanded responsibility ( authority over ten cities ) as a result of his faithfulness; this in turn is an exhortation to faithfulness for the reader.


text: Though ten were given minas, the story stops to focus on the one who did nothing with the opportunity given to him. Here is the parable’s warning about the one who does not trust the master. This figure is called “ another ,” marking him out as different than the first two.


text: The one who has nothing has even what he seems to have taken away from him, ending up with no reward at all (see also Luke 8:18 ). The exact force of this is left ambiguous, but there is no comfort here for those who are pictured by the third slave as being totally unmoved by the master. Though not an outright enemy, there is no relationship to the master either. Three groups are represented in the parable: the faithful of various sorts (vv. 16, 18 ); the unfaithful who associate with Jesus but do not trust him (v. 21 ); and the enemies (v. 27 ).


text: Slaughter them. To reject the king is to face certain judgment from him.


text: This is yet another travel note on the journey to Jerusalem . See also Luke 18:31; 19:11 . Jesus does not actually enter Jerusalem until 19:45 . map For location see Map5-B1 ; Map6-F3 ; Map7-E2 ; Map8-F2 ; Map10-B3 ; JP1-F4 ; JP2-F4 ; JP3-F4 ; JP4-F4 .


text: The exact location of the village of Bethphage is not known. Most locate it on the southeast side of the Mount of Olives and northwest of Bethany, about 1.5 miles (3 km) east of Jerusalem.


text: The custom called angaria allowed the impressment of animals for service to a significant figure.


text: Exactly as he had told them. Nothing in Luke 19-23 catches Jesus by surprise. Often he directs the action.


text: See Zech 9:9 .


text: See the note on the name Mount of Olives in v. 29 .


text: See 2:13, 20 ; Acts 2:47; 3:8-9 .


text: Luke adds the title king to the citation from Ps 118:26 to make clear who was meant (see Luke 18:38 ). The psalm was used in looking for the deliverance of the end, thus leading to the Pharisees’ reaction.


text: A quotation from Ps 118:26 .


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


text: Teacher, rebuke your disciples. The Pharisees were complaining that the claims were too great.


text: This statement amounts to a rebuke. The idiom of creation speaking means that even creation knows what is taking place, yet the Pharisees miss it. On this idiom, see Gen 4:10 and Hab 2:11 .


text: When Jesus approached and saw the city. This is the last travel note in Luke’s account (the so-called Jerusalem journey), as Jesus approached and saw the city before entering it.


text: On this day. They had missed the time of Messiah’s coming; see v. 44 .


text: But now they are hidden from your eyes. This becomes an oracle of doom in the classic OT sense; see Luke 13:31-35; 11:49-51 ; Jer 9:2; 13:7; 14:7 . They are now blind and under judgment ( Jer 15:5 ; Ps 122:6 ).


text: Jesus now predicted the events that would be fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. The details of the siege have led some to see Luke writing this after Jerusalem’s fall, but the language of the verse is like God’s exilic judgment for covenant unfaithfulness ( Hab 2:8 ; Jer 6:6, 14; 8:13-22; 9:1 ; Ezek 4:2; 26:8 ; Isa 29:1-4 ). Specific details are lacking and the procedures described ( build an embankment against you ) were standard Roman military tactics.


text: An embankment refers to either wooden barricades or earthworks, or a combination of the two.


text: (Not) one stone on top of another is an idiom for total destruction.


text: Matthew ( 21:12-27 ), Mark ( 11:15-19 ) and Luke (here, 19:45-46 ) record this incident of the temple cleansing at the end of Jesus’ ministry. John ( 2:13-16 ) records a cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. See the note on the word temple courts in John 2:14 for a discussion of the relationship of these accounts to one another.


text: A quotation from Isa 56:7 .


text: A quotation from Jer 7:11 . The meaning of Jesus’ statement about making the temple courts a den of robbers probably operates here at two levels. Not only were the religious leaders robbing the people financially, but because of this they had also robbed them spiritually by stealing from them the opportunity to come to know God genuinely. It is possible that these merchants had recently been moved to this location for convenience.


text: All the people hung on his words is an idiom for intent, eager listening. Jesus’ popularity and support made it unwise for the leadership to seize him.