Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Jesus sends out seventy disciples
10:1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.
10:2 He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
10:3 Go on your way; I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.
10:4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.
10:5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’
10:6 And if a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you.
10:7 Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house.
10:8 Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you;
10:9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
10:10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say,
10:11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’
10:16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
10:17 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!”
10:18 He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.
10:19 Indeed, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you.
10:20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
[1] Μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα ἀνέδειξεν ὁ Κύριος καὶ ἑτέρους ἑβδομήκοντα, καὶ ἀπέστειλεν αὐτοὺς ἀνὰ δύο πρὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ εἰς πᾶσαν πόλιν καὶ τόπον οὗ ἤμελλεν αὐτὸς ἔρχεσθαι. [2] ἔλεγεν οὖν πρὸς αὐτούς· ὁ μὲν θερισμὸς πολύς, οἱ δὲ ἐργάται ὀλίγοι· δεήθητε οὖν τοῦ κυρίου τοῦ θερισμοῦ ὅπως ἐκβάλῃ ἐργάτας εἰς τὸν θερισμὸν αὐτοῦ. [3] ὑπάγετε· ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἀποστέλλω ὑμᾶς ὡς ἄρνας ἐν μέσῳ λύκων. [4] μὴ βαστάζετε βαλλάντιον, μὴ πήραν, μηδὲ ὑποδήματα, καὶ μηδένα κατὰ τὴν ὁδὸν ἀσπάσησθε. [5] εἰς ἣν δ᾿ ἂν οἰκίαν εἰσέρχησθε, πρῶτον λέγετε· εἰρήνη τῷ οἴκῳ τούτῳ. [6] καὶ ἐὰν ᾖ ἐκεῖ υἱὸς εἰρήνης, ἐπαναπαύσεται ἐπ᾿ αὐτὸν ἡ εἰρήνη ὑμῶν· εἰ δὲ μήγε, ἐφ᾿ ὑμᾶς ἐπανακάμψει. [7] ἐν αὐτῇ δὲ τῇ οἰκίᾳ μένετε ἐσθίοντες καὶ πίνοντες τὰ παρ᾿ αὐτῶν· ἄξιος γὰρ ὁ ἐργάτης τοῦ μισθοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐστι· μὴ μεταβαίνετε ἐξ οἰκίας εἰς οἰκίαν. [8] καὶ εἰς ἣν ἂν πόλιν εἰσέρχησθε καὶ δέχωνται ὑμᾶς, ἐσθίετε τὰ παρατιθέμενα ὑμῖν, [9] καὶ θεραπεύετε τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ ἀσθενεῖς, καὶ λέγετε αὐτοῖς· ἤγγικεν ἐφ᾿ ὑμᾶς ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ. [10] εἰς ἣν δ᾿ ἂν πόλιν εἰσέρχησθε καὶ μὴ δέχωνται ὑμᾶς, ἐξελθόντες εἰς τὰς πλατείας αὐτῆς εἴπατε· [11] καὶ τὸν κονιορτὸν τὸν κολληθέντα ἡμῖν ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως ὑμῶν εἰς τοὺς πόδας ἡμῶν ἀπομασσόμεθα ὑμῖν· πλὴν τοῦτο γινώσκετε, ὅτι ἤγγικεν ἐφ᾿ ὑμᾶς ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ.
[16] ῾Ο ἀκούων ὑμῶν ἐμοῦ ἀκούει, καὶ ὁ ἀθετῶν ὑμᾶς ἐμὲ ἀθετεῖ· ὁ δὲ ἐμὲ ἀθετῶν ἀθετεῖ τὸν ἀποστείλαντά με.
[17] ῾Υπέστρεψαν δὲ οἱ ἑβδομήκοντα μετὰ χαρᾶς λέγοντες· Κύριε, καὶ τὰ δαιμόνια ὑποτάσσεται ἡμῖν ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί σου.
[18] Εἶπε δὲ αὐτοῖς· ἐθεώρουν τὸν σατανᾶν ὡς ἀστραπὴν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ πεσόντα.
[19] ἰδοὺ δίδωμι ὑμῖν τὴν ἐξουσίαν τοῦ πατεῖν ἐπάνω ὄφεων καὶ σκορπίων καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ ἐχθροῦ, καὶ οὐδὲν ὑμᾶς οὐ μὴ ἀδικήσῃ.
[20] πλὴν ἐν τούτῳ μὴ χαίρετε, ὅτι τὰ πνεύματα ὑμῖν ὑποτάσσεται· χαίρετε δὲ ὅτι τὰ ὀνόματα ὑμῶν ἐγράφη ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς.
Comments
Some of the key verbs imply that Jesus’ words are a ‘speech-act’, i.e. speech that brings about a change in outer circumstances (cf. ‘I pronounce you man and wife’). In the present case his speech-act is a commissioning.
[1] ἀνέδειξεν: ἀναδείκνυμι, ‘publicly proclaim someone as appointed or elected to office’, a sense attested in LXX (see Muraoka s.v.) and in Polybius (LSJ s.v., II.1). A public speech-act is implied, as shown by ἔλεγεν in v.2 (see immed. below).
πρὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ: cf. Lk 9: 52, ‘ahead of’ (Muraoka s.v. πρόσωπον, 6h), a Hebraism (Septuagintism), cf. Joel 2.11.
[2] ἔλεγεν: lit., ‘he was saying’. The impf. (as here) can be used to delineate the content of direct speech, esp. longer discourse. This tense also denotes incomplete action: the content of Jesus’ speech is still unaccomplished. His words are a typical speech act, inasmuch as they have the character of a command intended to complete an action or bring about a state. (See Blass-Debr.-Funk, sections 328-9, pp. 169 f. for the ‘conative’ nuance of certain vbs of command in the impf. and the particular use of ἔλεγεν.)
ὁ μὲν θερισμὸς πολύς, οἱ δὲ ἐργάται ὀλίγοι: the magnitude of the harvest is contrasted with the paucity of reapers, as shown by the antithesis πολύς- ὀλίγοι at the end of successive sentences. In ancient Greece, as most prob. in the Near East, the most gruelling task of the year was the cereal harvest, on which the year’s supply of ‘daily bread’ crucially depended. (For the ancient Greek harvest and its lore, see J. C. B. Petropoulos, Heat and lust, Hesiod’s midsummer festival scene revisited, Lanham, MD 1994; online open access: https://chs.harvard.edu/book/petropoulos-j-c-b-heat-and-lust-hesiods-midsummer-festival-scene-revisited/)
[5] εἰς ἣν δ᾿ ἂν οἰκίαν εἰσέρχησθε: this relative- conditional clause is varied slightly and expanded in v. 8 (εἰς ἣν ἂν πόλιν εἰσέρχησθε καὶ δέχωνται ὑμᾶς), then negated in v. 10 (εἰς ἣν δ᾿ ἂν πόλιν εἰσέρχησθε καὶ μὴ δέχωνται ὑμᾶς). The relative clause contains a ‘condition most vivid’ introduced by ἂν + subj. The antecedent (πόλιν) is attracted into the relative clause and agrees with the relative pron. (ἣν). See Goodwin par. 1036.
Together with v. 6 (ἐὰν ᾖ ἐκεῖ υἱὸς εἰρήνης, ἐπαναπαύσεται ἐπ᾿ αὐτὸν ἡ εἰρήνη ὑμῶν· εἰ δὲ μήγε, ἐφ᾿ ὑμᾶς ἐπανακάμψει ) the conditional clauses in v. 5 sound like stipulations of a command.
[16] ὁ ἀθετῶν ὑμᾶς ἐμὲ ἀθετεῖ· ὁ δὲ ἐμὲ ἀθετῶν ἀθετεῖ: ἀθετέω, ‘declare invalid’ (post-cl. Gk: LSJ s.v., I.1; EDNT s.v.), here, in effect, ‘reject’, the opposite of ἀκούει (‘hear, listen to, heed’). V. 16 implies an ascending scale or climax (you-me- my father).
[19] οὐδὲν ὑμᾶς οὐ μὴ ἀδικήσῃ: οὐ μὴ + subj. (as here) or future indicative expresses (already in cl. Gk) a very strong negation, and ‘occurs most frequently in the sayings of Jesus and in quotations from the LXX’ (EDNT s.v. μη, 5). Hence: ‘Absolutely NOTHING will hurt you.’
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 