Text -- Luke 12:49-53 (NET)

Not Peace, but Division

12:49 “I have come to bring fire on the earth– and how I wish it were already kindled! 12:50 I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is finished! 12:51 Do you think I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 12:52 For from now on there will be five in one household divided, three against two and two against three. 12:53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Luk 12:49

¹ sn This mission statement, “I have come to bring fire on the earth,” looks to the purging and division Jesus causes: See Luke 3:9, 17; 9:54; 17:29 for fire, 5:32; 7:34; 9:58; 12:51 for the topic of mission.

² tn Grk “cast.” For βάλλω (ballw) in the sense of causing a state or condition, see L&N 13.14.

NET Notes: Luk 12:50

¹ sn The figure of the baptism is variously interpreted, as some see a reference (1) to martyrdom or (2) to inundation with God’s judgment. The OT background, however, suggests the latter sense: Jesus is about to be uniquely inundated with God’s judgment as he is rejected, persecuted, and killed (Ps 18:4, 16; 42:7; 69:1-2; Isa 8:7-8; 30:27-28; Jonah 2:3-6).

² tn Grk “to be baptized with.”

NET Notes: Luk 12:51

¹ tn Or “hostility.” This term pictures dissension and hostility (BDAG 234 s.v. διαμερισμός).

NET Notes: Luk 12:52

¹ sn From now on is a popular phrase in Luke: 1:48; 5:10; 22:18, 69; see Mic 7:6.

NET Notes: Luk 12:53

¹ tn There is dispute whether this phrase belongs to the end of v. 52 or begins v. 53. Given the shift of object, a connection to v. 53 is slightly preferred.