Luke 9:38

9:38 Then ¹  a man from the crowd cried out, ²  “Teacher, I beg you to look at ³  my son – he is my only child!

Luke 9:54

9:54 Now when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire to come down from heaven and consume ⁴  them?” ⁵ 

[9:38]  ¹ tn Grk “And behold.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the somewhat unexpected appearance of the man. The Greek word ἰδού (idou) at the beginning of this statement has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[9:38]  ² tn Grk “cried out, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[9:38]  ³ tn This verb means “to have regard for”; see Luke 1:48.

[9:54]  ⁴ tn Or “destroy.”

[9:54]  ⁵ tc Most mss, especially the later ones (A C D W Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 Ï it), read here “as also Elijah did,” making the allusion to 2 Kgs 1:10, 12, 14 more explicit. The shorter reading has better and earlier support (Ì^45,75 א B L Ξ 579 700* 1241 pc lat sa). It is difficult to explain how the shorter reading could have arisen from the longer, especially since it is well represented early on. However, the longer reading looks to have been a marginal note originally, incorporated into the text of Luke by early scribes.