28th September 2025
Luke 16:19-31
Poor Lazarus and the rich man
16:19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.
16:20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
16:21 who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.
16:22 The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.
16:23 In Hades, where he was being tormented, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.
16:24 He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.’
16:25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.
16:26 Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’
16:27 He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house–
16:28 for I have five brothers–that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’
16:29 Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’
16:30He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
16:31He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
[19] ῎Ανθρωπος δέ τις ἦν πλούσιος, καὶ ἐνεδιδύσκετο πορφύραν καὶ βύσσον εὐφραινόμενος καθ᾿ ἡμέραν λαμπρῶς.
[20] πτωχὸς δέ τις ἦν ὀνόματι Λάζαρος, ὃς ἐβέβλητο πρὸς τὸν πυλῶνα αὐτοῦ ἡλκωμένος
[21] καὶ ἐπιθυμῶν χορτασθῆναι ἀπὸ τῶν ψιχίων τῶν πιπτόντων ἀπὸ τῆς τραπέζης τοῦ πλουσίου· ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ κύνες ἐρχόμενοι ἀπέλειχον τὰ ἕλκη αὐτοῦ.
[22] ἐγένετο δὲ ἀποθανεῖν τὸν πτωχὸν καὶ ἀπενεχθῆναι αὐτὸν ὑπὸ τῶν ἀγγέλων εἰς τὸν κόλπον ᾿Αβραάμ· ἀπέθανε δὲ καὶ ὁ πλούσιος καὶ ἐτάφη.
[23] καὶ ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ ἐπάρας τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ, ὑπάρχων ἐν βασάνοις, ὁρᾷ τὸν ᾿Αβραὰμ ἀπὸ μακρόθεν καὶ Λάζαρον ἐν τοῖς κόλποις αὐτοῦ.
[24] καὶ αὐτὸς φωνήσας εἶπε· πάτερ ᾿Αβραάμ, ἐλέησόν με καὶ πέμψον Λάζαρον ἵνα βάψῃ τὸ ἄκρον τοῦ δακτύλου αὐτοῦ ὕδατος καὶ καταψύξῃ τὴν γλῶσσάν μου, ὅτι ὀδυνῶμαι ἐν τῇ φλογὶ ταύτῃ.
[25] εἶπε δὲ ᾿Αβραάμ· τέκνον, μνήσθητι ὅτι ἀπέλαβες σὺ τὰ ἀγαθά σου ἐν τῇ ζωῇ σου, καὶ Λάζαρος ὁμοίως τὰ κακά· νῦν δὲ ὧδε παρακαλεῖται, σὺ δὲ ὀδυνᾶσαι·
[26] καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσι τούτοις μεταξὺ ἡμῶν καὶ ὑμῶν χάσμα μέγα ἐστήρικται, ὅπως οἱ θέλοντες διαβῆναι ἔνθεν πρὸς ὑμᾶς μὴ δύνωνται, μηδὲ οἱ ἐκεῖθεν πρὸς ἡμᾶς διαπερῶσιν.
[27] εἶπε δέ· ἐρωτῶ οὖν σε, πάτερ, ἵνα πέμψῃς αὐτὸν εἰς τὸν οἶκον τοῦ πατρός μου·
[28] ἔχω γὰρ πέντε ἀδελφούς· ὅπως διαμαρτύρηται αὐτοῖς, ἵνα μὴ καὶ αὐτοὶ ἔλθωσιν εἰς τὸν τόπον τοῦτον τῆς βασάνου.
[29 ]λέγει αὐτῷ ᾿Αβραάμ· ἔχουσι Μωϋσέα καὶ τοὺς προφήτας· ἀκουσάτωσαν αὐτῶν.
[30]ὁ δὲ εἶπεν· οὐχί, πάτερ ᾿Αβραάμ, ἀλλ᾿ ἐάν τις ἀπὸ νεκρῶν πορευθῇ πρὸς αὐτούς, μετανοήσουσιν.
[31] εἶπε δὲ αὐτῷ· εἰ Μωϋσέως καὶ τῶν προφητῶν οὐκ ἀκούουσιν, οὐδὲ ἐάν τις ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀναστῇ πεισθήσονται.
Comments
[19] ῎Ανθρωπος δέ τις ἦν πλούσιος: ἄνθρωπὸς τις or τις ἄνθρωπος means ‘someone’, ‘a person’. Here the syntax suggests not ‘someone was wealthy’, but rather ‘a wealthy man there was’, ‘there was a wealthy man’ (so also Trembelas ad loc.). The attrib. adj. at the end lends emphasis to the idea of wealth.
εὐφραινόμενος… λαμπρῶς: εὐφραίνομαι, pass., ‘enjoy oneself’ (also cl. Gk & LXX). λαμπρῶς: ‘splendidly’ (cl. Gk & LXX: LSJ s.v., III.1 & Muraoka, 2). In Si 29.22 λαμπρός (adj.) can refer to ‘foods’. λαμπρῶς here can be taken as ‘lavishly’.
[20] πτωχὸς δέ τις ἦν ὀνόματι Λάζαρος: this sentence, together with Ανθρωπος δέ τις ἦν πλούσιος in v. 19, forms a telling chiasmus (crisscross pattern AB ~ BA featuring parallelism and antithesis):
Someone … wealthy ~
a poor man …Lazarus.
An anonymous wealthy man is contrasted with a poor man named Lazarus. Despite their obvious contrasts, the two characters are interlinked. This is the only Gospel parable in which a character is given a name (Fitzmyer, p.1129).
ἐβέβλητο: lit., ‘had been thrown, hurled’ evokes violent action; from βάλλω, ‘Ι throw’ (LSJ s.v., A.II.2b). Perhaps the colloquial ‘dumped’ is a good equivalent. The pass. ‘had been thrown’ in Greek ‘is often used to describe an afflicted person, bedridden or crippled. See Rev. 2:22, Matt. 8:6, 14; 9:2, etc.’ (Fitzmeyer, p. 1131 ad loc.).
ἡλκωμένος: pass. part., ἑλκόομαι, ‘I suffer from wounds or sores’ (cl. Gk: LSJ s.v.I.b). Cf. τὰ ἕλκη, ‘festering wounds or sores’ (LSJ s.v., I.2).
[21] ἐπιθυμῶν χορτασθῆναι ἀπὸ τῶν ψιχίων: ἐπιθυμῶν, ‘longing for’, another emotive word, from ἐπιθυμέω, ‘long for, covet, desire’ (cl. Gk: LSJ s.v.). The implication: Lazarus cast longing glances at the crumbs (or scraps of food) falling under the table.
χορτασθῆναι: pass. inf. (< χορτάζω, of persons, ‘feed’), ‘to be fed’ (LSJ s.v., II). ἀπέλειχον τὰ ἕλκη αὐτοῦ: ἀπολείχω, the cmpd form (ἀπο + λείχω), ‘lick clean’ (LSJ s.v. ).
ψιχίων: gen. pl. of ψιχίον, diminutive of ψίξ, ὁ, ἡ, ‘morsel, bit, esp. of bread’ (late Gk: LSJ s.v.). Koine is fond of diminutives.
[23] ὁρᾷ : the historical present tense is vivid.
[25] καὶ Λάζαρος ὁμοίως τὰ κακά: the coordinating conj. καὶ is contrastive (pace the Engl. tr.). Thus: ‘BUT Lazarus for his part/ correspondingly received evil things’.
[26] μεταξὺ ἡμῶν καὶ ὑμῶν χάσμα μέγα: ‘a great yawning chasm between us and you (pl.)’. It is likely that ἡμῶν and ὑμῶν were still distinguishable in pronunciation, although the ἡ had turned into a short ‘i’ sound by now.
15th Sunday after Pentecost, 21st September 2025
St Luke 16:1-13
Serving God or wealth
16:1 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property.
16:2 So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer.’
16:3 Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.
16:4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’
16:5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
16:6 He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’
16:7 Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’
16:8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly, for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.
16:9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
16:10 “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.
16:11 If, then, you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?
16:12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?
16:13 No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
[1] Ἔλεγε δὲ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ· ἄνθρωπός τις ἦν πλούσιος, ὃς εἶχεν οἰκονόμον, καὶ οὗτος διεβλήθη αὐτῷ ὡς διασκορπίζων τὰ ὑπάρχοντα αὐτοῦ.
[2] καὶ φωνήσας αὐτὸν εἶπεν αὐτῷ· τί τοῦτο ἀκούω περὶ σοῦ; ἀπόδος τὸν λόγον τῆς οἰκονομίας σου· οὐ γὰρ δύνῃ ἔτι οἰκονομεῖν.
[3] εἶπε δὲ ἐν ἑαυτῷ ὁ οἰκονόμος· τί ποιήσω, ὅτι ὁ κύριός μου ἀφαιρεῖται τὴν οἰκονομίαν ἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ; σκάπτειν οὐκ ἰσχύω, ἐπαιτεῖν αἰσχύνομαι·
[4] ἔγνων τί ποιήσω, ἵνα, ὅταν μετασταθῶ ἐκ τῆς οἰκονομίας, δέξωνταί με εἰς τοὺς οἴκους ἑαυτῶν.
[5] καὶ προσκαλεσάμενος ἕνα ἕκαστον τῶν χρεωφειλετῶν τοῦ κυρίου ἑαυτοῦ ἔλεγε τῷ πρώτῳ· πόσον ὀφείλεις σὺ τῷ κυρίῳ μου;
[6] ὁ δὲ εἶπεν· ἑκατὸν βάτους ἐλαίου. καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· δέξαι σου τὸ γράμμα καὶ καθίσας ταχέως γράψον πεντήκοντα.
[7] ἔπειτα ἑτέρῳ εἶπε· σὺ δὲ πόσον ὀφείλεις; ὁ δὲ εἶπεν· ἑκατὸν κόρους σίτου. καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· δέξαι σου τὸ γράμμα καὶ γράψον ὀγδοήκοντα.
[8] καὶ ἐπῄνεσεν ὁ κύριος τὸν οἰκονόμον τῆς ἀδικίας, ὅτι φρονίμως ἐποίησεν· ὅτι οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου φρονιμώτεροι ὑπὲρ τοὺς υἱοὺς τοῦ φωτὸς εἰς τὴν γενεὰν τὴν ἑαυτῶν εἰσι.
[9] Κἀγὼ ὑμῖν λέγω· ποιήσατε ἑαυτοῖς φίλους ἐκ τοῦ μαμωνᾶ τῆς ἀδικίας, ἵνα, ὅταν ἐκλίπητε, δέξωνται ὑμᾶς εἰς τὰς αἰωνίους σκηνάς.
[10] ὁ πιστὸς ἐν ἐλαχίστῳ καὶ ἐν πολλῷ πιστός ἐστι, καὶ ὁ ἐν ἐλαχίστῳ ἄδικος καὶ ἐν πολλῷ ἄδικός ἐστιν.
[11] εἰ οὖν ἐν τῷ ἀδίκῳ μαμωνᾷ πιστοὶ οὐκ ἐγένεσθε, τὸ ἀληθινὸν τίς ὑμῖν πιστεύσει;
[12] καὶ εἰ ἐν τῷ ἀλλοτρίῳ πιστοὶ οὐκ ἐγένεσθε, τὸ ὑμέτερον τίς ὑμῖν δώσει;
[13] Οὐδεὶς οἰκέτης δύναται δυσὶ κυρίοις δουλεύειν· ἢ γὰρ τὸν ἕνα μισήσει καὶ τὸν ἕτερον ἀγαπήσει, ἢ ἑνὸς ἀνθέξεται καὶ τοῦ ἑτέρου καταφρονήσει. οὐ δύνασθε Θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ μαμωνᾷ.
Comments
The English translation of vv. 3-4 does not preserve the asyndeton (lack of conjunctions), and falls short of the dramatic effect which Jesus reproduced. His re-enactment of the agrarian manager’s interior monologue recalls Aristotle’s observation in Rhetoric 3.12.2, 4 that asyndeton (the equivalent of comma splice in English) is suited to delivery by an actor.
[1] Ἔλεγε: impf., ‘he was saying’; as mentioned in other comments, the 3rd pers. sg. impf. of λέγω can be used to flag the content of direct speech, esp. longer discourse (in this case, a parable).
διεβλήθη αὐτῷ: lit., ‘he [the manager] was accused before him [the wealthy man]’. St Luke employs διαβάλλω in its class. sense, ‘to accuse someone without the implication of slander’ (see LSJ s.v. V.1).
ὡς διασκορπίζων: relative adv. ὡς + part. (‘as squandering’) suggests the objective grounds of the accusation.
[2] οὐ γὰρ δύνῃ ἔτι οἰκονομεῖν: δύνῃ, 2nd pers. sg., δύναμαι, which, usually when negated (as here), refers to moral impossibility (LSJ s.v. δύναμαι, Ι.2a): ‘you cannot/ may not work any longer as manager’.
[3] τί ποιήσω: ποιήσω, 1st pers. sg., aor. subj., ‘What am I to do?’, deliberative subjunctive in a direct question, which the manager posed to himself. As a literary narrator, Jesus is omniscient, hence εἶπε δὲ ἐν ἑαυτῷ ὁ οἰκονόμος, ‘he [the manager] told himself’.
σκάπτειν οὐκ ἰσχύω, ἐπαιτεῖν αἰσχύνομαι: ‘I am not physically strong enough to dig, to beg I am ashamed’. The two short sentences have no coordination. Lack of connection is more noticeable in Greek, and here conveys dramatic intensity. αἰσχύνομαι: ‘I am ashamed’ is emotive; the man is mortified at the thought of having to beg.
[4] ἔγνων τί ποιήσω: the manager answers his own question. This sentence—an exclamation– is the third unconnected sentence, marking the dramatic climax: ‘Aha! I’ve figured out what I am to do! ’ The ancient literary critic Demetrius, in ‘On style’, 226, calls asyndeton a dramatic figure. ἔγνων, 1st pers. sg.,2nd aor. of γινώσκω, ‘come to know’ (LSJ s.v. γιγνώσκω, Ι.1, Muraoka s.v., 1). The aor. here suggests a sudden discovery forcefully evoked by the narrator Jesus; it is a ‘culminative aorist’, which indicates the completion of an effort or process ( for this kind of aor., see J. A. Brooks & C.L. Winbery, Syntax of New Testament Greek, Lanham, Md & London, 1979, p. 100). This aor. might also qualify as a ‘dramatic aor.’ (Fitzmeyer op. cit., p. 1100), about which Brooks & Winbery op. cit., p. 102 note: ‘…it describes something that has just happened’, and is used ‘for emphasis or dramatic effect’.
[6] δέξαι σου τὸ γράμμα: ‘take your bill’. The γράμμα is really an IOU (Fitzmeyer op. cit., 1100). This phrase (with the unusually placed possessive σου) is repeated verbatim in v.7.
[8] τὸν οἰκονόμον τῆς ἀδικίας: acc., ‘the manager of dishonesty/ unrighteousness’ in lieu of ‘dishonest/unrighteous manager’ is a Septuagintism (cf. J. A. Fitzmeyer, S. J., The Gospel according to Luke X-XXIV, New Haven & London, 1985, p.1101 ad loc.). Cf. v. 9, μαμωνᾶ τῆς ἀδικίας, ‘mammon of dishonesty’, which in v. 11 is ‘hellenised’ into ἀδίκῳ μαμωνᾷ, ‘dishonest mammon’. In both of the last cases, ‘mammon’ is characterised as invariably unrighteous (M. Wolter, The Gospel according to Luke, vol. II, Engl. tr., Baylor Univ. Press, 2017, p.268).
ὑπὲρ τοὺς υἱοὺς τοῦ φωτὸς: ‘more than the sons of light’.
[10] ὁ πιστὸς ἐν ἐλαχίστῳ καὶ ἐν πολλῷ πιστός ἐστι: the alliteration of the π- sound may be fortuitous, but noticeable.
14th September 2025, 14th Sunday after Pentecost
St Luke 15:1-10
Lost sheep and lost coin
15:1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him.
15:2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
15:3 So he told them this parable:
15:4 “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?
15:5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.
15:6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’
15:7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
15:8 “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?
15:9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’
15:10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
[1] Ἦσαν δὲ ἐγγίζοντες αὐτῷ πάντες οἱ τελῶναι καὶ οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἀκούειν αὐτοῦ.
[2] καὶ διεγόγγυζον οἱ Φαρισαῖοι καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς λέγοντες ὅτι οὗτος ἁμαρτωλοὺς προσδέχεται καὶ συνεσθίει αὐτοῖς.
[3] εἶπε δὲ πρὸς αὐτοὺς τὴν παραβολὴν ταύτην λέγων·
[4] τίς ἄνθρωπος ἐξ ὑμῶν ἔχων ἑκατὸν πρόβατα, καὶ ἀπολέσας ἓν ἐξ αὐτῶν, οὐ καταλείπει τὰ ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ καὶ πορεύεται ἐπὶ τὸ ἀπολωλὸς ἕως οὗ εὕρῃ αὐτό;
[5] καὶ εὑρὼν ἐπιτίθησιν ἐπὶ τοὺς ὤμους αὐτοῦ χαίρων,
[6] καὶ ἐλθὼν εἰς τὸν οἶκον συγκαλεῖ τοὺς φίλους καὶ τοὺς γείτονας λέγων αὐτοῖς· συγχάρητέ μοι ὅτι εὗρον τὸ πρόβατόν μου τὸ ἀπολωλός.
[7] λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι οὕτω χαρὰ ἔσται ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ἐπὶ ἑνὶ ἁμαρτωλῷ μετανοοῦντι ἢ ἐπὶ ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα δικαίοις, οἵτινες οὐ χρείαν ἔχουσι μετανοίας.
[8] ῍Η τίς γυνὴ δραχμὰς ἔχουσα δέκα, ἐὰν ἀπολέσῃ δραχμὴν μίαν, οὐχὶ ἅπτει λύχνον καὶ σαροῖ τὴν οἰκίαν καὶ ζητεῖ ἐπιμελῶς ἕως ὅτου εὕρῃ;
[9] καὶ εὑροῦσα συγκαλεῖ τὰς φίλας καὶ τὰς γείτονας λέγουσα· συγχάρητέ μοι ὅτι εὗρον τὴν δραχμὴν ἣν ἀπώλεσα.
[10] οὕτω, λέγω ὑμῖν, χαρὰ γίνεται ἐνώπιον τῶν ἀγγέλων τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπὶ ἑνὶ ἁμαρτωλῷ μετανοοῦντι.
Comments
Tax and customs collectors had a bad name already among pagans well before St Luke’s day. The Pharisees and scribes grumble mightily amongst themselves, suggesting disgruntlement shared within a group. The particle (δέ) that introduces v. 3 suggests that Jesus utters his parables—or parable discourse— in the teeth of his detractor’s hostile growls. The vocabulary of joy and sharing joy is prominent. Jesus’ parables rest on a particular (cross-cultural) rhetorical strategy of argumentation first analysed by none other than Aristotle.
[1] οἱ τελῶναι καὶ οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ: τελώνης, ‘collector of tolls, customs, or taxes’, already in Aristophanes; ‘freq. with a sense of reproach’ in post-cl. Gk pagan authors (LSJ s.v.). A North American analogue might be an ICE agent. The significance of ἁμαρτωλός, adj., ‘erroneous’ (in Aristotle: LSJ s.v., I.1), changes by the time of the LXX to ‘given to sin’; in LXX, the term is mostly a substantive, as here, meaning ‘sinner’ (in relation to God) (Muraoka s.v., b).
[2] διεγόγγυζον: διαγογγύζω, ‘mutter or murmur among themselves’ (the preverb/prefix δια- indicates the notion of ‘among’) first attest. in LXX (LSJ s.v.). The simplex γογγύζω is an example of onomatopoeia.The meaning given by Muraoka, ‘grumble, always of human beings’ (Muraoka s.v.), better captures the negative nuances—the Pharisees and the scribes did not like what they heard.
[3] εἶπε δὲ: the particle δὲ is connective-inferential (‘and so, therefore’, as in the Engl. tr.) or contrastive (‘but’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘for his part’). The latter seems more likely: despite their audible displeasure, Jesus delivered a parable (so also Trembelas ad loc.).
[4] τὸ ἀπολωλὸς: ἀπολωλὸς, pf. part., ‘lost’ < ἀπόλωλα, pf. of mid. ἀπόλλυμαι; in Att. (cl.) Gk, the pf. is freq. in the sense ‘I am lost’ (LSJ s.v. ἀπόλλυμαι, Β.1). Νote that the sheep has got lost; it has lost itself—the shepherd has not lost it by any fault of his! But cf. the woman in vv. 8-9, who loses her coin.
[5] καὶ εὑρὼν: ‘and finding it/ after finding it’, 2nd aor. part. The temporal part. comes at the head of the sentence, and corresponds to the sequence of events. We can imagine the shepherd crying ‘Eureka! I’ve found it!’ The same structure with the same implications occurs in v.9, καὶ εὑροῦσα, referring to the woman who, to her delight, has found the coin.
χαίρων: pres. part., χαίρω, ‘rejoice, be glad’, already in Homer (LSJ s.v.). Cf. vv. 6 & 9, συγχάρητέ μοι, and 7& 10, χαρὰ.
[6] συγχάρητέ μοι: aor. imper., 2nd pers. pl., συγχαίρω, cmpd form of χαίρω, lit. ‘rejoice with’ (συν-); the active form has a passive 2nd aor. in post-cl. Gk , as here (LSJ s.v., I). Thus: ‘rejoice together with me!’ ‘Share my joy!’
[7] οὕτω χαρὰ: χαρὰ, ‘joy, delight’ (first attested in Sappho; cl. Gk poetry & prose: LSJ s.v., I; also in LXX: Muraoka s.v.).
οὕτω: adv.,‘thus’, ‘accordingly’; here the adv. has a correlative force, referring back to the preceding: ‘so much, accordingly’ (Muraoka s.v., A.b). οὕτω looks back to the joy experienced by the shepherd, and means ‘likewise, just as the shepherd’s joy’. The Engl. text does well to over-translate by adding ‘more joy’, even though the Greek does not mention ‘more joy’. The Engl. tr. is in keeping with Jesus’ argumentum a minori ad maius, a rhetorical strategy first discussed by Aristotle in his Rhetoric Bk I, Part I 1356a 34 (also in his work on logic, Topics Book II). Cf. v. 10, οὕτω, λέγω ὑμῖν, χαρὰ…, ‘ I tell you, in the same manner/ likewise is there joy…’
7th September 2025, 13th Sunday after Pentecost
St Luke 14:25-33
Give up your possessions
14:25 Now large crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and said to them,
14:26 “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.
14:27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?
14:29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him,
14:30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’
14:31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?
14:32 If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.
14:33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
25 Συνεπορεύοντο δὲ αὐτῷ ὄχλοι πολλοί. καὶ στραφεὶς εἶπε πρὸς αὐτούς·
26 εἴ τις ἔρχεται πρός με καὶ οὐ μισεῖ τὸν πατέρα ἑαυτοῦ καὶ τὴν μητέρα καὶ τὴν γυναῖκα καὶ τὰ τέκνα καὶ τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς καὶ τὰς ἀδελφάς, ἔτι δὲ καὶ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχήν, οὐ δύναταί μου μαθητὴς εἶναι.
27 Καὶ ὅστις οὐ βαστάζει τὸν σταυρὸν ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ἔρχεται ὀπίσω μου, οὐ δύναται εἶναί μου μαθητής.
28 Τίς γὰρ ἐξ ὑμῶν, θέλων πύργον οἰκοδομῆσαι, οὐχὶ πρῶτον καθίσας ψηφίζει τὴν δαπάνην, εἰ ἔχει τὰ πρὸς ἀπαρτισμόν;
29 Ἵνα μήποτε, θέντος αὐτοῦ θεμέλιον καὶ μὴ ἰσχύσαντος ἐκτελέσαι, πάντες οἱ θεωροῦντες ἄρξωνται αὐτῷ ἐμπαίζειν,
30 λέγοντες ὅτι οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἤρξατο οἰκοδομεῖν καὶ οὐκ ἴσχυσεν ἐκτελέσαι;
31 Ἢ τίς βασιλεύς, πορευόμενος συμβαλεῖν ἑτέρῳ βασιλεῖ εἰς πόλεμον, οὐχὶ πρῶτον καθίσας βουλεύεται εἰ δυνατός ἐστιν ἐν δέκα χιλιάσιν ἀπαντῆσαι τῷ μετὰ εἴκοσι χιλιάδων ἐρχομένῳ ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν;
32 Εἰ δὲ μήγε, ἔτι πόρρω αὐτοῦ ὄντος πρεσβείαν ἀποστείλας ἐρωτᾷ τὰ πρὸς εἰρήνην.
33 Οὕτως οὖν πᾶς ἐξ ὑμῶν, ὃς οὐκ ἀποτάσσεται πᾶσι τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ ὑπάρχουσιν, οὐ δύναται εἶναί μου μαθητής.
Comments
In what follows, I have taken the liberty of tweaking some key words of the Engl. translation.
[25] ὄχλοι πολλοί: ὄχλος, ὁ, ‘crowd, throng, masses’ (cl. Gk prose & poetry, also LXX: LSJ s.v. I.1; Muraoka); (pejorative) ‘mob’ (cl. prose: LSJ I.2). The crowd is the ‘anonymous background to Jesus’ ministry’, and reacts to him positively or harmfully (EDNT s.v.). πολλοί, ‘large,’ magnifies the size of the multitudes.
[26] εἴ τις ἔρχεται πρός με καὶ οὐ μισεῖ: ‘if someone comes to me and does not hate…’. A miniscule point: in cl. Gk, conditional (‘if’) clauses normally are negated by μή, not οὐ. This is post-classical Gk (Blass-Debr.-Funk, par. 428).
ἔτι δὲ καὶ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχήν: ἔτι, adv., of degree, ‘besides, nay more’ (LSJ s.v., II.1), modifying μισεῖ, ‘hates’. τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχήν, ‘his own life’, is the culminating item in this ascending scale. Τhis is a rhetorical climax (or κλιμακωτόν). Τhe Engl. text translates the phrase as ‘life itself’, although St Luke uses the generalising personal possessive ‘his’/ ‘his own’, of life.
οὐ δύναταί μου μαθητὴς εἶναι: lit., ‘he cannot MY disciple be’. μου, ‘my’, placed before disciple, may carry emphasis; the usual position for ‘my’ in Greek would be after ‘disciple’. Cf. the phrases in vv. 27 and 33.
[27] ὅστις οὐ βαστάζει τὸν σταυρὸν ἑαυτοῦ: the negative particle οὐ suggests that this relative clause does not have a conditional tone (cf. on v. 26, εἴ τις ἔρχεται, etc.)—a minor point. What is of interest, though, is the vb βαστάζει. Βαστάζω ( in Homer = ‘lift up, raise’) means ‘carry a load’ in cl. Gk and LXX; here, fig., ‘bear, endure’ (late Gk: LSJ s.v., I.1, II.1 & 4; EDNT, s.v., p. 209). The Engl. text renders the vb as ‘carry’ and the phrase as ‘carry the cross’; Jesus, however way we render βαστάζει, is using metaphorical language—and, pace the Engl. translator, says ‘his (own) cross’.
οὐ δύναται εἶναί μου μαθητής: ‘he cannot be MY disciple’. Again, the personal possessive pron. μου precedes μαθητής, ‘disciple’, laying stress on ‘my’. This clause and the nearly identical one in v. 26 make up a chiasmus (AB ~ BA). Thus: μου μαθητὴς εἶναι ~ εἶναί μου μαθητής.
Jesus is stressing by the position of these phrases the affiliation of his disciples with him.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 