Luke 23:37-38

23:37 and saying, “If ¹  you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” 23:38 There was also an inscription ²  over him, “This is the king of the Jews.”

Luke 7:3

7:3 When the centurion ³  heard ⁴  about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders ⁵  to him, asking him to come ⁶  and heal his slave.

Luke 23:3

23:3 So ⁷  Pilate asked Jesus, ⁸  “Are you the king ⁹  of the Jews?” He replied, “You say so.” ¹⁰ 

Luke 23:51

23:51 (He ¹¹  had not consented ¹²  to their plan and action.) He ¹³  was from the Judean town ¹⁴  of Arimathea, and was looking forward to ¹⁵  the kingdom of God. ¹⁶ 

[23:37]  ¹ tn This is also a first class condition in the Greek text.

[23:38]  ² sn Mention of the inscription is an important detail, because the inscription would normally give the reason for the execution. It shows that Jesus was executed for claiming to be a king. It was also probably written with irony from the executioners’ point of view.

[7:3]  ³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the centurion) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:3]  ⁴ tn The participle ἀκούσας (akousas) has been taken temporally.

[7:3]  ⁵ sn Why some Jewish elders are sent as emissaries is not entirely clear, but the centurion was probably respecting ethnic boundaries, which were important in ancient Greco-Roman and Jewish culture. The parallel account in Matt 8:5-13 does not mention the emissaries.

[7:3]  ⁶ tn The participle ἐλθών (elqwn) has been translated as an infinitive in parallel with διασώσῃ (diaswsh) due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[23:3]  ⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the charges brought in the previous verse.

[23:3]  ⁵ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:3]  ⁶ sn “Are you the king of the Jews?” Pilate was interested only in the third charge, because of its political implications of sedition against Rome.

[23:3]  ⁷ sn The reply “You say so” is somewhat enigmatic, like Jesus’ earlier reply to the Jewish leadership in 22:70.

[23:51]  ⁵ tn Grk “This one.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started in the translation at this point.

[23:51]  ⁶ tc Several mss (א C D L Δ Ψ 070 Ë^1,13 [579] 892 1424 2542 al) read the present participle συγκατατιθέμενος (sunkatatiqemeno") instead of the perfect participle συγκατατεθειμένος (sunkatateqeimeno"). The present participle could be taken to mean that Joseph had decided that the execution was now a mistake. The perfect means that he did not agree with it from the start. The perfect participle, however, has better support externally (Ì⁷⁵ A B W Θ 33 Ï), and is thus the preferred reading.

[23:51]  ⁷ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started in the translation at this point.

[23:51]  ⁸ tn Or “Judean city”; Grk “from Arimathea, a city of the Jews.” Here the expression “of the Jews” (᾿Iουδαίων, Ioudaiwn) is used in an adjectival sense to specify a location (cf. BDAG 478 s.v. ᾿Iουδαῖος 2.c) and so has been translated “Judean.”

[23:51]  ⁹ tn Or “waiting for.”

[23:51]  ¹⁰ sn Though some dispute that Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus, this remark that he was looking forward to the kingdom of God, the affirmation of his character at the end of v. 50, and his actions regarding Jesus’ burial all suggest otherwise.