Luke 2:1

The Census and the Birth of Jesus

2:1 Now ¹  in those days a decree ²  went out from Caesar ³  Augustus ⁴  to register ⁵  all the empire ⁶  for taxes.

Luke 17:22

The Coming of the Son of Man

17:22 Then ⁷  he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days ⁸  of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.

Luke 17:29-30

17:29 but on the day Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. ⁹  17:30 It will be the same on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

Luke 21:22

21:22 because these are days of vengeance, ¹⁰  to fulfill ¹¹  all that is written.

Luke 22:7

The Passover

22:7 Then the day for the feast ¹²  of Unleavened Bread came, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. ¹³ 

[2:1]  ¹ tn Grk “Now it happened that.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[2:1]  ² sn This decree was a formal decree from the Roman Senate.

[2:1]  ³ tn Or “from the emperor” (“Caesar” is a title for the Roman emperor).

[2:1]  ⁴ sn Caesar Augustus refers to Octavian, who was Caesar from 27 b.c. to a.d. 14. He was known for his administrative prowess.

[2:1]  ⁵ tn Grk “that all the empire should be registered for taxes.” The passive infinitive ἀπογράφεσθαι (apografesqai) has been rendered as an active in the translation to improve the English style. The verb is regarded as a technical term for official registration in tax lists (BDAG 108 s.v. ἀπογράφω a).

[2:1]  ⁶ tn Grk “the whole (inhabited) world,” but this was a way to refer to the Roman empire (L&N 1.83).

[17:22]  ⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[17:22]  ⁸ sn This is a reference to the days of the full manifestation of Jesus’ power in a fully established kingdom. The reference to “days” instead of “day” is unusual, appearing only here and in v. 26, but it may be motivated merely by parallelism with the “days” of Noah there and the “days of Lot” in v. 28.

[17:29]  ¹³ sn And destroyed them all. The coming of the Son of Man will be like the judgment on Sodom, one of the most immoral places of the OT (Gen 19:16-17; Deut 32:32-33; Isa 1:10).

[21:22]  ¹⁹ tn Or “of punishment.” This is a time of judgment.

[21:22]  ²⁰ tn The passive construction with the infinitive πλησθῆναι (plhsqhnai) has been translated as an active construction for simplicity, in keeping with contemporary English style.

[22:7]  ²⁵ tn The words “for the feast” are not in the Greek text, but have been supplied for clarity.

[22:7]  ²⁶ sn Generally the feast of Unleavened Bread would refer to Nisan 15 (Friday), but the following reference to the sacrifice of the Passover lamb indicates that Nisan 14 (Thursday) was what Luke had in mind (Nisan = March 27 to April 25). The celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted eight days, beginning with the Passover meal. The celebrations were so close together that at times the names of both were used interchangeably.