Luke 3:16

3:16 John answered them all, ¹  “I baptize you with water, ²  but one more powerful than I am is coming – I am not worthy ³  to untie the strap ⁴  of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ⁵ 

Luke 5:12

Healing a Leper

5:12 While ⁶  Jesus ⁷  was in one of the towns, ⁸  a man came ⁹  to him who was covered with ¹⁰  leprosy. ¹¹  When ¹²  he saw Jesus, he bowed down with his face to the ground ¹³  and begged him, ¹⁴  “Lord, if ¹⁵  you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Luke 5:17

Healing and Forgiving a Paralytic

5:17 Now on ¹⁶  one of those days, while he was teaching, there were Pharisees ¹⁷  and teachers of the law ¹⁸  sitting nearby (who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem), ¹⁹  and the power of the Lord was with him ²⁰  to heal.

Luke 6:17

The Sermon on the Plain

6:17 Then ²¹  he came down with them and stood on a level place. ²²  And a large number ²³  of his disciples had gathered ²⁴  along with ²⁵  a vast multitude from all over Judea, from ²⁶  Jerusalem, ²⁷  and from the seacoast of Tyre ²⁸  and Sidon. ²⁹  They came to hear him and to be healed ³⁰  of their diseases,

[3:16]  ¹ tn Grk “answered them all, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant and has not been translated.

[3:16]  ² tc A few mss (C D 892 1424 pc it ) add εἰς μετάνοιαν (ei" metanoian, “for repentance”). Although two of the mss in support are early and important, it is an obviously motivated reading to add clarification, probably representing a copyist’s attempt to harmonize Luke’s version with Matt 3:11.

[3:16]  ³ tn Grk “of whom I am not worthy.”

[3:16]  ⁴ tn The term refers to the leather strap or thong used to bind a sandal. This is often viewed as a collective singular and translated as a plural, “the straps of his sandals,” but it may be more emphatic to retain the singular here.

[3:16]  ⁵ sn With the Holy Spirit and fire. There are differing interpretations for this phrase regarding the number of baptisms and their nature. (1) Some see one baptism here, and this can be divided further into two options. (a) The baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire could refer to the cleansing, purifying work of the Spirit in the individual believer through salvation and sanctification, or (b) it could refer to two different results of Christ’s ministry: Some accept Christ and are baptized with the Holy Spirit, but some reject him and receive judgment. (2) Other interpreters see two baptisms here: The baptism of the Holy Spirit refers to the salvation Jesus brings at his first advent, in which believers receive the Holy Spirit, and the baptism of fire refers to the judgment Jesus will bring upon the world at his second coming. One must take into account both the image of fire and whether individual or corporate baptism is in view. A decision is not easy on either issue. The image of fire is used to refer to both eternal judgment (e.g., Matt 25:41) and the power of the Lord’s presence to purge and cleanse his people (e.g., Isa 4:4-5). The pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost, a fulfillment of this prophecy no matter which interpretation is taken, had both individual and corporate dimensions. It is possible that since Holy Spirit and fire are governed by a single preposition in Greek, the one-baptism view may be more likely, but this is not certain. Simply put, there is no consensus view in scholarship at this time on the best interpretation of this passage.

[5:12]  ⁶ tn Grk “And it happened that while.” 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.

[5:12]  ⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:12]  ⁸ tn Or “cities.”

[5:12]  ⁹ tn Grk “towns, behold, a man covered with leprosy.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou, “behold”) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[5:12]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “full of leprosy” (an idiom for a severe condition).

[5:12]  ¹¹ sn The ancient term for leprosy covers a wider array of conditions than what is called leprosy today. A leper was totally ostracized from society until he was declared cured (Lev 13:45-46).

[5:12]  ¹² tn Grk “And seeing.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, δέ (de) has not been translated here. The participle ἰδών (idwn) has been taken temporally.

[5:12]  ¹³ tn Grk “he fell on his face”; an idiom for bowing down with one’s face to the ground.

[5:12]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “and begged him, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[5:12]  ¹⁵ tn This is a third class condition. The report portrays the leper making no presumptions about whether Jesus will heal him or not.

[5:17]  ¹¹ tn Grk “And it happened that on.” 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.

[5:17]  ¹² sn Pharisees were members of one of the most important and influential religious and political parties of Judaism in the time of Jesus. There were more Pharisees than Sadducees (according to Josephus, Ant. 17.2.4 [17.42] there were more than 6,000 Pharisees at about this time). Pharisees differed with Sadducees on certain doctrines and patterns of behavior. The Pharisees were strict and zealous adherents to the laws of the OT and to numerous additional traditions such as angels and bodily resurrection.

[5:17]  ¹³ tn That is, those who were skilled in the teaching and interpretation of the OT law. These are called “experts in the law” (Grk “scribes”) in v. 21.

[5:17]  ¹⁴ sn Jesus was now attracting attention outside of Galilee as far away as Jerusalem, the main city of Israel.

[5:17]  ¹⁵ tc Most mss (A C D [K] Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 Ï latt bo) read αὐτούς (autous) instead of αὐτόν (auton) here. If original, this plural pronoun would act as the direct object of the infinitive ἰᾶσθαι (iasqai, “to heal”). However, the reading with the singular pronoun αὐτόν, which acts as the subject of the infinitive, is to be preferred. Externally, it has support from better mss (א B L W al sa). Internally, it is probable that scribes changed the singular αὐτόν to the plural αὐτούς, expecting the object of the infinitive to come at this point in the text. The singular as the harder reading accounts for the rise of the other reading.

[6:17]  ¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[6:17]  ¹⁷ tn Or “on a plateau.” This could refer to a message given in a flat locale or in a flat locale in the midst of a more mountainous region (Jer 21:13; Isa 13:2). It is quite possible that this sermon is a summary version of the better known Sermon on the Mount from Matt 5-7.

[6:17]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “large crowd.”

[6:17]  ¹⁹ tn There is no verb in Greek at this point, but since “a large crowd” (see preceding tn) is in the nominative case, one needs to be supplied.

[6:17]  ²⁰ tn Grk “and.”

[6:17]  ²¹ tn Grk “and from,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[6:17]  ²² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[6:17]  ²³ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[6:17]  ²⁴ sn These last two locations, Tyre and Sidon, represented an expansion outside of traditional Jewish territory. Jesus’ reputation continued to expand into new regions.

[6:17]  ²⁵ sn To hear him and to be healed. Jesus had a two-level ministry: The word and then wondrous acts of service that showed his message of God’s care were real.