Luke 10:13

10:13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! ¹  Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if ²  the miracles ³  done in you had been done in Tyre ⁴  and Sidon, ⁵  they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

Luke 12:3

12:3 So then ⁶  whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered ⁷  in private rooms ⁸  will be proclaimed from the housetops. ⁹ 

Luke 17:31

17:31 On that day, anyone who is on the roof, ¹⁰  with his goods in the house, must not come down ¹¹  to take them away, and likewise the person in the field must not turn back.

[10:13]  ¹ sn Chorazin was a town of Galilee that was probably fairly small in contrast to Bethsaida and is otherwise unattested. Bethsaida was declared a polis by the tetrarch Herod Philip, sometime after a.d. 30.

[10:13]  ² tn This introduces a second class (contrary to fact) condition in the Greek text.

[10:13]  ³ tn Or “powerful deeds.”

[10:13]  ⁴ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[10:13]  ⁵ sn Tyre and Sidon are two other notorious OT cities (Isa 23; Jer 25:22; 47:4). The remark is a severe rebuke, in effect: “Even the sinners of the old era would have responded to the proclamation of the kingdom, unlike you!”

[12:3]  ⁶ tn Or “because.” Understanding this verse as a result of v. 2 is a slightly better reading of the context. Knowing what is coming should impact our behavior now.

[12:3]  ⁷ tn Grk “spoken in the ear,” an idiom. The contemporary expression is “whispered.”

[12:3]  ⁸ sn The term translated private rooms refers to the inner room of a house, normally without any windows opening outside, the most private location possible (BDAG 988 s.v. ταμεῖον 2).

[12:3]  ⁹ tn The expression “proclaimed from the housetops” is an idiom for proclaiming something publicly (L&N 7.51). Roofs of many first century Jewish houses in Judea and Galilee were flat and had access either from outside or from within the house. Something shouted from atop a house would be heard by everyone in the street below.

[17:31]  ¹¹ sn Most of the roofs in the NT were flat roofs made of pounded dirt, sometimes mixed with lime or stones, supported by heavy wooden beams. They generally had an easy means of access, either a sturdy wooden ladder or stone stairway, sometimes on the outside of the house.

[17:31]  ¹² sn The swiftness and devastation of the judgment will require a swift escape. There is no time to come down from one’s roof and pick up anything from inside one’s home.