translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: LUK

label: NET study note

text: The Lake of Gennesaret is another name for the Sea of Galilee. Cf. the parallel in Matt 4:18 .


text: The image of the crowd pressing around him suggests the people leaning forward to catch Jesus’ every word.


text: Lord is a term of high respect in this context. God’s presence in the work of Jesus makes Peter recognize his authority. This vocative is common in Luke (20 times), but does not yet have its full confessional force.


text: Peter was intimidated that someone who was obviously working with divine backing was in his presence (“ Go away from me ”). He feared his sinfulness might lead to judgment, but Jesus would show him otherwise.


text: An explanatory conjunction ( For ) makes it clear that Peter’s exclamation is the result of a surprising set of events. He speaks, but the others feel similarly.


text: In the Greek text, this term is in an emphatic position.


text: From now on is a common Lukan expression, see Luke 1:48 .


text: The expression left everything and followed him pictures discipleship, which means that to learn from Jesus is to follow him as the guiding priority of one’s life.


text: The ancient term for leprosy covers a wider array of conditions than what is called leprosy today. A leper was totally ostracized from society until he was declared cured ( Lev 13:45-46 ).


text: Touched. This touch would have rendered Jesus ceremonially unclean ( Lev 14:46 ; also Mishnah, m. Nega’im 3.1; 11.1; 12.1; 13.6-12).


text: The silence ordered by Jesus was probably meant to last only until the cleansing took place with the priests and sought to prevent Jesus’ healings from becoming the central focus of the people’s reaction to him. See also 4:35, 41; 8:56 for other cases where Jesus asks for silence with reference to miracles.


text: On the phrase as Moses commanded see Lev 14:1-32 .


text: That is, in spite of Jesus’ instructions to the man to tell no one about the healing (v. 14 ).


text: Pharisees were members of one of the most important and influential religious and political parties of Judaism in the time of Jesus. There were more Pharisees than Sadducees (according to Josephus, Ant. 17.2.4 [17.42] there were more than 6,000 Pharisees at about this time). Pharisees differed with Sadducees on certain doctrines and patterns of behavior. The Pharisees were strict and zealous adherents to the laws of the OT and to numerous additional traditions such as angels and bodily resurrection.


text: Jesus was now attracting attention outside of Galilee as far away as Jerusalem , the main city of Israel. map For location see Map5-B1 ; Map6-F3 ; Map7-E2 ; Map8-F2 ; Map10-B3 ; JP1-F4 ; JP2-F4 ; JP3-F4 ; JP4-F4 .


text: A house in 1st century Palestine would have had a flat roof with stairs or a ladder going up. This access was often from the outside of the house.


text: The phrase right in front of Jesus trailing as it does at the end of the verse is slightly emphatic, adding a little note of drama: What would Jesus do?


text: The plural pronoun their makes it clear that Jesus was responding to the faith of the entire group, not just the paralyzed man.


text: Uttering blasphemies meant to say something that dishonored God. To claim divine prerogatives or claim to speak for God when one really does not would be such an act of offense. The remark raised directly the issue of the nature of Jesus’ ministry.


text: Jesus often perceived people’s thoughts in Luke; see 4:23; 6:8; 7:40; 9:47 . Such a note often precedes a rebuke.


text: Which is easier is a reflective kind of question. On the one hand to declare sins are forgiven is easier, since one does not need to see it, unlike telling a paralyzed person to walk. On the other hand, it is harder, because for it to be true one must possess the authority to forgive the sin.


text: Now Jesus put the two actions together. The walking of the man would be proof ( so that you may know ) that his sins were forgiven and that God had worked through Jesus (i.e., the Son of Man ).


text: The term Son of Man , which is a title in Greek, comes from a pictorial description in Dan 7:13 of one “like a son of man” (i.e., a human being). It is Jesus’ favorite way to refer to himself. Jesus did not reveal the background of the term here, which mixes human and divine imagery as the man in Daniel rides a cloud, something only God does. He just used it. It also could be an idiom in Aramaic meaning either “some person” or “me.” So there is a little ambiguity in its use here, since its origin is not clear at this point. However, the action makes it clear that Jesus used it to refer to himself here.


text: Note the man’s response, glorifying God . Joy at God’s work is also a key theme in Luke: 2:20; 4:15; 5:26; 7:16; 13:13; 17:15; 18:43; 23:47 .


text: See the note on today in 2:11 .


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


text: It is possible that Levi is a second name for Matthew, because people often used alternative names in 1st century Jewish culture.


text: Follow me. For similar calls on the part of Jesus see Luke 5:10-11; 9:23, 59; 18:22 .


text: On the phrase leaving everything see Luke 5:10-11; 14:33 .


text: A great banquet refers to an elaborate meal. Many of the events in Luke take place in the context of meal fellowship: 7:36-50; 9:12-17; 10:38-42; 11:37-54; 14:1-24; 22:7-38; 24:29-32, 41-43 .


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


text: The issue here is inappropriate associations ( eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners ) and the accusation comes not against Jesus, but his disciples.


text: Jesus’ point is that he associates with those who are sick because they have the need and will respond to the offer of help. A person who is well (or who thinks mistakenly that he is) will not seek treatment.


text: I have not come is another commission statement by Jesus; see 4:43-44 .


text: Though parallels exist to this saying ( Matt 9:13 ; Mark 2:17 ), only Luke has this last phrase but sinners to repentance . Repentance is a frequent topic in Luke’s Gospel: 3:3, 8; 13:1-5; 15:7, 10; 16:30; 17:3-4; 24:47 .


text: B L W Ξ 33 892* 1241 sa. John refers to John the Baptist.


text: John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees followed typical practices with regard to fasting and prayer. Many Jews fasted regularly ( Lev 16:29-34; 23:26-32 ; Num 29:7-11 ). The zealous fasted twice a week on Monday and Thursday.


text: The expression while the bridegroom is with them is an allusion to messianic times ( John 3:29 ; Isa 54:5-6; 62:4-5 ; 4 Ezra 2:15, 38).


text: The statement when the bridegroom is taken from them is a veiled allusion by Jesus to his death, which he did not make explicit until the incident at Caesarea Philippi in 9:18 ff.


text: The term parable in a Semitic context can cover anything from a long story to a brief wisdom saying. Here it is the latter.


text: The piece from the new will not match the old. The imagery in this saying looks at the fact that what Jesus brings is so new that it cannot simply be combined with the old . To do so would be to destroy what is new and to put together something that does not fit.


text: Wineskins were bags made of skin or leather, used for storing wine in NT times. As the new wine fermented and expanded, it would stretch the new wineskins. Putting new (unfermented) wine in old wineskins, which had already been stretched, would result in the bursting of the wineskins.


text: 33 579 700 1241 2542 co), however, lack the words. The meaning of the saying new wine…into new skins is that the presence and teaching of Jesus was something new and signaled the passing of the old. It could not be confined within the old religion of Judaism, but involved the inauguration and consummation of the kingdom of God.