St Luke 13:10-17
Jesus heals on the sabbath
13:10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.
13:11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.
13:12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”
13:13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
13:14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured and not on the Sabbath day.”
13:15 But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?
13:16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”
13:17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame, and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things being done by him.
[10]῏Ην δὲ διδάσκων ἐν μιᾷ τῶν συναγωγῶν ἐν τοῖς σάββασι.
[11] καὶ ἰδοὺ γυνὴ ἦν πνεῦμα ἔχουσα ἀσθενείας ἔτη δέκα καὶ ὀκτώ, καὶ ἦν συγκύπτουσα καὶ μὴ δυναμένη ἀνακῦψαι εἰς τὸ παντελές.
[12] ἰδὼν δὲ αὐτὴν ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς προσεφώνησε καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῇ· γύναι, ἀπολέλυσαι τῆς ἀσθενείας σου·
[13] καὶ ἐπέθηκεν αὐτῇ τὰς χεῖρας· καὶ παραχρῆμα ἀνωρθώθη καὶ ἐδόξαζε τὸν Θεόν.
[14] ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ ἀρχισυνάγωγος, ἀγανακτῶν ὅτι τῷ σαββάτῳ ἐθεράπευσεν ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς, ἔλεγε τῷ ὄχλῳ· ἓξ ἡμέραι εἰσὶν ἐν αἷς δεῖ ἐργάζεσθαι· ἐν ταύταις οὖν ἐρχόμενοι θεραπεύεσθε, καὶ μὴ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ σαββάτου.
[15] ἀπεκρίθη οὖν αὐτῷ ὁ Κύριος καὶ εἶπεν· ὑποκριτά, ἕκαστος ὑμῶν τῷ σαββάτῳ οὐ λύει τὸν βοῦν αὐτοῦ ἢ τὸν ὄνον ἀπὸ τῆς φάτνης καὶ ἀπαγαγὼν ποτίζει;
[16] ταύτην δέ, θυγατέρα ᾿Αβραὰμ οὖσαν, ἣν ἔδησενὁ σατανᾶς ἰδοὺ δέκα καὶ ὀκτὼ ἔτη, οὐκ ἔδει λυθῆναι ἀπὸ τοῦδεσμοῦτούτου τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ σαββάτου;
[17] καὶ ταῦτα λέγοντος αὐτοῦ κατῃσχύνοντο πάντες οἱ ἀντικείμενοι αὐτῷ, καὶ πᾶς ὁ ὄχλος ἔχαιρεν ἐπὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ἐνδόξοις τοῖς γινομένοις ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ.
Comments
Jesus lays stress on the duration of the woman’s affliction; he predicts her miraculous healing with utter certainty, whereupon she is healed at once by his hands. The word θεραπεύω has come into its own in the NT, meaning ‘heal miraculously’. Jesus confounds and disgraces his detractors, as implied by the relevant verb. All of these events and states are conveyed through the rhetorical, grammatical, and lexical means treated below.
[10] Ἦν δὲ διδάσκων: the impf. of vbs can be formed from εἶναι (‘to be’) + the pres. part. of the vb. This is a NT idiom most freq. attested in Lk and to a lesser degree in Mk. This form may have evolved under Semitic influence (B-Debr.- F., par. 353, pp. 179-80). Cf. the two periphrastic impfs in v. 11, ἦν… ἔχουσα (= ‘she had’) and ἦν συγκύπτουσα καὶ μὴ δυναμένη (= ‘she was bending over, and was not able to…’).
[11] ἰδοὺ: ‘behold’, an imper. that functions as a deictic particle; here it signals something extraordinary. ‘Behold’, used by the narrator, is likewise used by Jesus in v. 16 (q.v.) to express the duration of the woman’s affliction.
πνεῦμα… ἀσθενείας: the unnamed woman had a spirit of weakness or alternatively, of disease. ἀσθένεια = ‘lack of strength (σθένος); ‘disease, illness’. The former sense is possible in LXX (Muraoka s.v., a); cl. Gk and and the NT admit of both senses (LSJ s.v., 1, 2; EDNT s.v.). A ‘spirit’ (πνεῦμα) has caused her condition, whether it is debility or illness. This agent is satanic (see v. 16).
ἔτη δέκα καὶ ὀκτώ: the acc. expresses duration; cf. on v. 16 below.
[12] γύναι: voc. of γυνή, ‘woman’ (cf. Engl. gynaecology). As noted in previous comments, this particular address is, socially speaking, neutral, and does not suggest intimacy or impoliteness.
ἀπολέλυσαι τῆς ἀσθενείας σου: lit., ‘you have (already) been freed/ released from your handicap/ illness’— Jesus says this even before laying his hands upon the woman. The pf. indicates absolute certainty about a future event. As in cl. Gk, the pf. tense here is the equivalent of the ‘prophetic present’ (discussed in previous comments).
[13] παραχρῆμα: ‘οn the spot, forthwith’ (cl. Gk prose & poetry: LSJ s.v., 1), ‘instantly’ (EDNT s.v.). In the overwhelming majority of instances, this adv. occurs in miracle accounts (so EDNT s.v.). Ancient magical papyrus spells in Greek as a rule also envisage immediate, automatic efficacy.
[14] ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ ἀρχισυνάγωγος… ἔλεγε: ἀποκρίνομαι, mid. vc., ‘I answer’, can take the pass. aor., ἀπεκρίθην in LXX & NT Gk (EDNT s.v.,1), whence the pass. aor. part. ἀποκριθεὶς in this v. Here the particular meaning of the vb is ‘I begin speaking’. The head of the synagogue launches a volley of criticism. ἔλεγε, impf. (‘was saying, said’) here calls attention to the ‘content of a speech’ (Bl.-Debr.-Funk, par. 329, p. 170), in this case a reprimand.
ἐθεράπευσεν: θεραπεύω, ‘I treat medically’ (in cl. Gk: LSJ s.v., II.7), denotes in LXX ‘I cure a human being medically’ (Muraoka s.v., 2b); in the NT it denotes ‘I cure someone miraculously’ (EDNT s.v., 1), and is used most often by a narrator (ibid.). Cf. θεραπεύεσθε. Cf. Engl. therapy.
[15] ἀπεκρίθη οὖν αὐτῷ ὁ Κύριος καὶ εἶπεν: This sentence (‘So, the Lord answered him, and said’) may be compared with the idiom ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν (‘answering, he said’), a Hebraism freq. in biblical Gk that can mark the beginning (or continuation) of a speech (EDNT s.v. ἀποκρίνομαι, 1).
[16] ἰδοὺ δέκα καὶ ὀκτὼ ἔτη: this adverbial acc. (‘for eighteen years’) expresses duration as it does in v. 11, and is intensified by ἰδοὺ, ‘behold’. The phrase (‘behold! for eighteen years’) inverting as it does ἔτη δέκα καὶ ὀκτώ (v. 11, ‘for years eighteen’), is an example of chiasmus (AB ~ BA). Ηere the recurrence and inversion lay stress on the duration of suffering—eighteen whole years as compared with the six-day toil of beasts of burden. (Chiasmus and ἰδοὺ have been discussed in previous comments.)
[17] κατῃσχύνοντο: 3rd pers. pl. impf., καταισχύνομαι, pass. vc., ‘I am put to shame’ (already cl. Gk: LSJ s.v., II). καταισχύνω, -ομαι is freq. in LXX; the cmpd pass. form is synonymous with the simple αἰσχύνομαι (EDNT s.v. καταισχύνω, 1 & 3). Τhe meaning here is, in effect, ‘they were disgraced’.
τοῖς ἐνδόξοις τοῖς γινομένοις ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ: γινομένοις, the pres. participle, means ‘those deeds being performed’, not past deeds. The miracle was but one of Jesus’ ongoing actions. Cf. τὰ γιγνόμενα ὑπὸ τῶν Ἀθηναίων, Thucydides 6. 88 (LSJ s.v. γίγνομαι, I.3).
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 