Luke 6:6-11

Healing a Withered Hand

6:6 On ¹  another Sabbath, Jesus ²  entered the synagogue ³  and was teaching. Now ⁴  a man was there whose right hand was withered. ⁵  6:7 The experts in the law ⁶  and the Pharisees ⁷  watched ⁸  Jesus ⁹  closely to see if ¹⁰  he would heal on the Sabbath, ¹¹  so that they could find a reason to accuse him. 6:8 But ¹²  he knew ¹³  their thoughts, ¹⁴  and said to the man who had the withered hand, “Get up and stand here.” ¹⁵  So ¹⁶  he rose and stood there. 6:9 Then ¹⁷  Jesus said to them, “I ask you, ¹⁸  is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save a life or to destroy it?” 6:10 After ¹⁹  looking around ²⁰  at them all, he said to the man, ²¹  “Stretch out your hand.” The man ²²  did so, and his hand was restored. ²³  6:11 But they were filled with mindless rage ²⁴  and began debating with one another what they would do ²⁵  to Jesus.

[6:6]  ¹ tn Grk “Now 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.

[6:6]  ² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:6]  ³ sn See the note on synagogues in 4:15.

[6:6]  ⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic. In addition, because the Greek sentence is rather long and complex, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[6:6]  ⁵ tn Grk “a man was there and his right hand was withered.”

[6:7]  ⁶ tn Or “The scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 5:21.

[6:7]  ⁷ sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.

[6:7]  ⁸ sn The term translated watched…closely is emotive, since it carries negative connotations. It means they were watching him out of the corner of their eye or spying on him.

[6:7]  ⁹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:7]  ¹⁰ tn This is a first class condition in the Greek text; Jesus’ opponents anticipated he would do this.

[6:7]  ¹¹ sn The background for this is the view that only if life was endangered should one attempt to heal on the Sabbath (see the Mishnah, m. Shabbat 6.3; 12.1; 18.3; 19.2; m. Yoma 8.6).

[6:8]  ¹² tn Here the conjunction δέ (de) has been translated as contrastive.

[6:8]  ¹³ sn The statement that Jesus knew their thoughts adds a prophetic note to his response; see Luke 5:22.

[6:8]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “their reasonings.” The implication is that Jesus knew his opponents’ plans and motives, so the translation “thoughts” was used here.

[6:8]  ¹⁵ sn Most likely synagogues were arranged with benches along the walls and open space in the center for seating on the floor.

[6:8]  ¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the man’s action was a result of Jesus’ order.

[6:9]  ¹⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[6:9]  ¹⁸ sn With the use of the plural pronoun (“you”), Jesus addressed not just the leaders but the crowd with his question to challenge what the leadership was doing. There is irony as well. As Jesus sought to restore on the Sabbath (but improperly according to the leaders’ complaints) the leaders were seeking to destroy, which surely is wrong. The implied critique recalls the OT: Isa 1:1-17; 58:6-14.

[6:10]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “And after.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[6:10]  ²⁰ tn The aorist participle περιβλεψάμενος (peribleyameno") has been translated as antecedent (prior) to the action of the main verb. It could also be translated as contemporaneous (“Looking around… he said”).

[6:10]  ²¹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (the man with the withered hand) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:10]  ²² tn Grk “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[6:10]  ²³ sn The passive was restored points to healing by God. Now the question became: Would God exercise his power through Jesus, if what Jesus was doing were wrong? Note also Jesus’ “labor.” He simply spoke and it was so.

[6:11]  ²⁴ tn The term ἄνοια (anoia) denotes a kind of insane or mindless fury; the opponents were beside themselves with rage. They could not rejoice in the healing, but could only react against Jesus.

[6:11]  ²⁵ tn The use of the optative (ποιήσαιεν, poihsaien, “might do”) in an indirect question indicates that the formal opposition and planning of Jesus’ enemies started here (BDF §§385.1; 386.1).