Luke 1:18-19

1:18 Zechariah ¹  said to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? ²  For I am an old man, and my wife is old as well.” ³  1:19 The ⁴  angel answered him, “I am Gabriel, who stands ⁵  in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring ⁶  you this good news.

Luke 7:8

7:8 For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me. ⁷  I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, ⁸  and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” ⁹ 

Luke 15:21

15:21 Then ¹⁰  his son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven ¹¹  and against you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ¹² 

Luke 18:11

18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ¹³  ‘God, I thank ¹⁴  you that I am not like other people: ¹⁵  extortionists, ¹⁶  unrighteous people, ¹⁷  adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ¹⁸ 

Luke 19:22

19:22 The king ¹⁹  said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, ²⁰  you wicked slave! ²¹  So you knew, did you, that I was a severe ²²  man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow?

Luke 21:8

21:8 He ²³  said, “Watch out ²⁴  that you are not misled. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ ²⁵  and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them!

Luke 24:39

24:39 Look at my hands and my feet; it’s me! ²⁶  Touch me and see; a ghost ²⁷  does not have flesh and bones like you see I have.”

[1:18]  ¹ tn Grk “And Zechariah.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[1:18]  ² tn Grk “How will I know this?”

[1:18]  ³ tn Grk “is advanced in days” (an idiom for old age).

[1:19]  ⁴ tn Grk “And the.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[1:19]  ⁵ tn Grk “the one who is standing before God.”

[1:19]  ⁶ tn Grk “to announce these things of good news to you.”

[7:8]  ⁷ tn Grk “having soldiers under me.”

[7:8]  ⁸ sn I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes. The illustrations highlight the view of authority the soldier sees in the word of one who has authority. Since the centurion was a commander of a hundred soldiers, he understood what it was both to command others and to be obeyed.

[7:8]  ⁹ tn The word “it” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[15:21]  ¹⁰ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[15:21]  ¹¹ sn The phrase against heaven is a circumlocution for God. 1st century Judaism tended to minimize use of the divine name out of reverence.

[15:21]  ¹² sn The younger son launches into his confession just as he had planned. See vv. 18-19.

[18:11]  ¹³ tn Or “stood by himself and prayed like this.” The prepositional phrase πρὸς ἑαυτόν (pros eauton, “to/about himself”) could go with either the aorist participle σταθείς (staqeis, “stood”) or with the imperfect verb προσηύχετο (proshuceto, “he prayed”). If taken with the participle, then the meaning would seem at first glance to be: “stood ‘by himself’,” or “stood ‘alone’.” Now it is true that πρός can mean “by” or “with” when used with intransitive verbs such as ἵστημι ({isthmi, “I stand”; cf. BDAG 874 s.v. πρός 2.a), but πρὸς ἑαυτόν together never means “by himself” or “alone” in biblical Greek. On the other hand, if πρὸς ἑαυτόν is taken with the verb, then two different nuances emerge, both of which highlight in different ways the principal point Jesus seems to be making about the arrogance of this religious leader: (1) “prayed to himself,” but not necessarily silently, or (2) “prayed about himself,” with the connotation that he prayed out loud, for all to hear. Since his prayer is really a review of his moral résumé, directed both at advertising his own righteousness and exposing the perversion of the tax collector, whom he actually mentions in his prayer, the latter option seems preferable. If this is the case, then the Pharisee’s mention of God is really nothing more than a formality.

[18:11]  ¹⁴ sn The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God, but the praise ended up not being about God.

[18:11]  ¹⁵ tn Here the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) is used as a generic and can refer to both men and women (NASB, NRSV, “people”; NLT, “everyone else”; NAB, “the rest of humanity”).

[18:11]  ¹⁶ tn Or “swindlers” (BDAG 134 s.v. ἅρπαξ 2); see also Isa 10:2; Josephus, J. W. 6.3.4 [6.203].

[18:11]  ¹⁷ sn A general category for “sinners” (1 Cor 6:9; Lev 19:3).

[18:11]  ¹⁸ sn Note what the Pharisee assumes about the righteousness of this tax collector by grouping him with extortionists, unrighteous people, and adulterers.

[19:22]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the nobleman of v. 12, now a king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:22]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “out of your own mouth” (an idiom).

[19:22]  ¹⁸ tn Note the contrast between this slave, described as “wicked,” and the slave in v. 17, described as “good.”

[19:22]  ¹⁹ tn Or “exacting,” “harsh,” “hard.”

[21:8]  ¹⁹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[21:8]  ²⁰ tn Or “Be on guard.”

[21:8]  ²¹ tn That is, “I am the Messiah.”

[24:39]  ²² tn Grk “that it is I myself.”

[24:39]  ²³ tn See tc note on “ghost” in v. 37.