Luke 12:26

12:26 So if ¹  you cannot do such a very little thing as this, why do you worry about ²  the rest?

Luke 12:49

Not Peace, but Division

12:49 “I have come ³  to bring ⁴  fire on the earth – and how I wish it were already kindled!

Luke 13:9

13:9 Then if ⁵  it bears fruit next year, ⁶  very well, ⁷  but if ⁸  not, you can cut it down.’”

Luke 14:32

14:32 If he cannot succeed, ⁹  he will send a representative ¹⁰  while the other is still a long way off and ask for terms of peace. ¹¹ 

Luke 17:18

17:18 Was no one found to turn back and give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹² 

Luke 23:6

Jesus Brought Before Herod

23:6 Now when Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean.

Luke 23:31

23:31 For if such things are done ¹³  when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” ¹⁴ 

Luke 23:37

23:37 and saying, “If ¹⁵  you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!”

¹ tn This is a first class condition in the Greek text.

² tn Or “why are you anxious for.”

³ 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.

⁴ tn Grk “cast.” For βάλλω (ballw) in the sense of causing a state or condition, see L&N 13.14.

⁵ tn This is a third class condition in the Greek text. The conjunction καί (kai, a component of κάν [kan]) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

⁶ tn Grk “the coming [season].”

⁷ tn The phrase “very well” is supplied in the translation to complete the elided idea, but its absence is telling.

⁸ tn This is a first class condition in the Greek text, showing which of the options is assumed.

⁷ tn Grk “And if not.” Here δέ (de) has not been translated; “succeed” is implied and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn Grk “a messenger.”

⁹ sn This image is slightly different from the former one about the tower (vv. 28-30). The first part of the illustration (sit down first and determine) deals with preparation. The second part of the illustration (ask for terms of peace) has to do with recognizing who is stronger. This could well suggest thinking about what refusing the “stronger one” (God) might mean, and thus constitutes a warning. Achieving peace with God, the more powerful king, is the point of the illustration.

⁹ sn Jesus’ point in calling the man a foreigner is that none of the other nine, who were presumably Israelites, responded with gratitude. Only the “outsiders” were listening and responding.

¹¹ tn Grk “if they do such things.” The plural subject here is indefinite, so the active voice has been translated as a passive (see ExSyn 402).

¹² sn The figure of the green wood and the dry has been variously understood. Most likely the picture compares the judgment on Jesus as the green (living) wood to the worse judgment that will surely come for the dry (dead) wood of the nation.

¹³ tn This is also a first class condition in the Greek text.