Luke 11:11

11:11 What father among you, if your 1  son asks for 2  a fish, will give him a snake 3  instead of a fish?

Luke 10:19

10:19 Look, I have given you authority to tread 4  on snakes and scorpions 5  and on the full force of the enemy, 6  and nothing will 7  hurt you.

1 tn Grk “the”; in context the article is used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

2 tc Most mss (א A C D L W Θ Ψ Ë1,13 33 Ï lat syc,p,h bo) have “bread, does not give him a stone instead, or” before “a fish”; the longer reading, however, looks like a harmonization to Matt 7:9. The shorter reading is thus preferred, attested by Ì45,75 B 1241 pc sys sa.

3 sn The snake probably refers to a water snake.

4 tn Or perhaps, “trample on” (which emphasizes the impact of the feet on the snakes). See L&N 15.226.

5 sn Snakes and scorpions are examples of the hostility in the creation that is defeated by Jesus. The use of battle imagery shows who the kingdom fights against. See Acts 28:3-6.

6 tn Or “I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and [authority] over the full force of the enemy.” The second prepositional phrase can be taken either as modifying the infinitive πατεῖν (patein, “to tread”) or the noun ἐξουσίαν (exousian, “power”). The former is to be preferred and has been represented in the translation.

7 tn This is an emphatic double negative in the Greek text.