Luke 11:16

Context
11:16 Others, to test¹ him,² began asking for³ a sign⁴ from heaven.

Luke 11:29-30

Context

The Sign of Jonah

11:29 As⁵ the crowds were increasing, Jesus⁶ began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it looks for a sign,⁷ but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.⁸ 11:30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh,⁹ so the Son of Man will be a sign¹⁰ to this generation.¹¹

[11:16] ¹tn Grk “testing”; the participle is taken as indicating the purpose of the demand.

[11:16] ²tn The pronoun “him” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[11:16] ³tn Grk “seeking from him.” The imperfect ἐζήτουν (ezhtoun) is taken ingressively. It is also possible to regard it as iterative (“kept on asking”).

[11:16] ⁴sn What exactly this sign would have been, given what Jesus was already doing, is not clear. But here is where the fence-sitters reside, refusing to commit to him.

[11:29] ⁵tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[11:29] ⁶tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:29] ⁷sn The mention of a sign alludes back to Luke 11:16. Given what Jesus had done, nothing would be good enough. This leads to the rebuke that follows.

[11:29] ⁸sn As the following comparisons to Solomon and Jonah show, in the present context the sign of Jonah is not an allusion to Jonah being three days in the belly of the fish, but to Jesus’ teaching about wisdom and repentance.

[11:30] ⁹tn Grk “to the Ninevites.” What the Ninevites experienced was Jonah’s message (Jonah 3:4, 10; 4:1).

[11:30] ¹⁰tn The repetition of the words “a sign” are not in the Greek text, but are implied and are supplied here for clarity.

[11:30] ¹¹tc Only the Western ms D and a few Itala mss add here a long reference to Jonah being in the belly of the fish for three days and nights and the Son of Man being three days in the earth, apparently harmonizing the text to the parallel in Matt 12:40.