Luke 4:9

4:9 Then ¹  the devil ²  brought him to Jerusalem, ³  had him stand ⁴  on the highest point of the temple, ⁵  and said to him, “If ⁶  you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,

Luke 5:37

5:37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. ⁷  If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.

Luke 13:19

13:19 It is like a mustard seed ⁸  that a man took and sowed ⁹  in his garden. It ¹⁰  grew and became a tree, ¹¹  and the wild birds ¹²  nested in its branches.” ¹³ 

[4:9]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[4:9]  ² tn Grk “he”; the referent (the devil) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:9]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[4:9]  ⁴ tn Grk “and stood him.”

[4:9]  ⁵ sn The reference to the highest point of the temple probably refers to the one point on the temple’s southeast corner where the site looms directly over a cliff some 450 feet (135 m) high. However, some have suggested the reference could be to the temple’s high gate.

[4:9]  ⁶ tn This is another first class condition, as in v. 3.

[5:37]  ⁷ sn Wineskins were bags made of skin or leather, used for storing wine in NT times. As the new wine fermented and expanded, it would stretch the new wineskins. Putting new (unfermented) wine in old wineskins, which had already been stretched, would result in the bursting of the wineskins.

[13:19]  ¹³ sn The mustard seed was noted for its tiny size.

[13:19]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “threw.”

[13:19]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “garden, and it.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[13:19]  ¹⁶ sn Calling the mustard plant a tree is rhetorical hyperbole, since technically it is not one. This plant could be one of two types of mustard popular in Palestine and would be either 10 or 25 ft (3 or 7.5 m) tall.

[13:19]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “the birds of the sky” or “the birds of the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated either “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The idiomatic expression “birds of the sky” refers to wild birds as opposed to domesticated fowl (cf. BDAG 809 s.v. πετεινόν).

[13:19]  ¹⁸ sn The point of the parable seems to be that while the kingdom of God may appear to have insignificant and unnoticeable beginnings (i.e., in the ministry of Jesus), it will someday (i.e., at the second advent) be great and quite expansive. The kingdom, however, is not to be equated with the church, but rather the church is an expression of the kingdom. Also, there is important OT background in the image of the mustard seed that grew and became a tree: Ezek 17:22-24 pictures the reemergence of the Davidic house where people can find calm and shelter. Like the mustard seed, it would start out small but grow to significant size.