12th October 2025, 18th Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 17:11-19
The healed leper gives thanks to Jesus
17:11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.
17:12 As he entered a village, ten with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance,
17:13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
17:14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean.
17:15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.
17:16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.
17:17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? So where are the other nine?
17:18 Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?”
17:19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
[11] Καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ πορεύεσθαι αὐτὸν εἰς ῾Ιερουσαλὴμ καὶ αὐτὸς διήρχετο διὰ μέσου Σαμαρείας καὶ Γαλιλαίας.
[12] καὶ εἰσερχομένου αὐτοῦ εἴς τινα κώμην ἀπήντησαν αὐτῷ δέκα λεπροὶ ἄνδρες, οἳ ἔστησαν πόρρωθεν,
[13] καὶ αὐτοὶ ἦραν φωνὴν λέγοντες· ᾿Ιησοῦ ἐπιστάτα, ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς.
[14] καὶ ἰδὼν εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· πορευθέντες ἐπιδείξατε ἑαυτοὺς τοῖς ἱερεῦσι. καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ ὑπάγειν αὐτοὺς ἐκαθαρίσθησαν.
[15] εἷς δὲ ἐξ αὐτῶν, ἰδὼν ὅτι ἰάθη, ὑπέστρεψε μετὰ φωνῆς μεγάλης δοξάζων τὸν Θεόν,
[16] καὶ ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον παρὰ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ εὐχαριστῶν αὐτῷ· καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν Σαμαρείτης.
[17] ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς εἶπεν· οὐχὶ οἱ δέκα ἐκαθαρίσθησαν; οἱ δὲ ἐννέα ποῦ;
[18] οὐχ εὑρέθησαν ὑποστρέψαντες δοῦναι δόξαν τῷ Θεῷ εἰ μὴ ὁ ἀλλογενὴς οὗτος;
[19] καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· ἀναστὰς πορεύου· ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέ σε.
Comments
The passage contains several emphatic words.
[11] αὐτὸς διήρχετο: ‘he was passing through’. The personal pron. αὐτὸς, ‘he’, is not necessary, and hence prob. serves to stress that Jesus has chosen his own route (so Trembelas ad. loc., who notes that the construction is a Hebraism). The impf. is descriptive.
[12] ἀπήντησαν αὐτῷ: ἀπαντάω c. dat.pers., ‘meet, encounter’ (cl. Gk & LXX: LSJ s.v., I a; Muraoka, 1); ‘fall in with’ (LSJ, ibid.). One might translate thus: ‘they chanced upon him’.
[13] καὶ αὐτοὶ ἦραν φωνὴν: the pers. pron. αὐτοὶ lends emphasis to the ‘leprous men’, the subject.
[14] καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ ὑπάγειν αὐτοὺς ἐκαθαρίσθησαν: the Hebrew construction ἐγένετο + a finite vb throws emphasis on the action of the verb, here ἐκαθαρίσθησαν. Thus: ‘And it came to pass that… THEY WERE CLEANSED’. The climactic ‘They were cleansed’ is an agentless dative that points to divine activity, as is ἰάθη, ‘he was cured’ (v. 15). Some experts call such a construction a passivum divinum. It will emerge from vv. 15 and 18 that God is the agent. Cf. also v. 17, ἐκαθαρίσθησαν (used by Jesus).
[15] εἷς δὲ: εἷς, the numeral ‘one’, at the beginning of the sentence, is stressed: ‘But ONE’.
[16] καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν Σαμαρείτης: the pers. pron. ‘he’ is emphatic.
[17] οἱ δὲ ἐννέα ποῦ: an ellipsis, the plural verb ‘are’ (εἰσί) being understood. The interrogative adv. ποῦ at the very end of the question is highly emphatic. ‘The nine — where [sc. are they]?’
[19] ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέ σε: the assonance of the sibilant ‘s’ is accidental but noticeable, esp. to non-Greek ears.
5th October 2025, 17th Sunday after Pentecost
St Luke 17:5-10
Faith the size of a mustard seed
17:5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
17:6 The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
17:7 “Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’?
17:8 Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me; put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’?
17:9 Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded?
17:10 So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”
[5] Καὶ εἶπον οἱ ἀπόστολοι τῷ Κυρίῳ· πρόσθες ἡμῖν πίστιν.
[6] εἶπε δὲ ὁ Κύριος· εἰ ἔχετε πίστιν ὡς κόκκον σινάπεως, ἐλέγετε ἂν τῇ συκαμίνῳ ταύτῃ, ἐκριζώθητι καὶ φυτεύθητι ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ, καὶ ὑπήκουσεν ἂν ὑμῖν.
[7] Τίς δὲ ἐξ ὑμῶν δοῦλονἔχων ἀροτριῶντα ἢ ποιμαίνοντα, ὃς εἰσελθόντι ἐκ τοῦ ἀγροῦ ἐρεῖ, εὐθέως παρελθὼν ἀνάπεσε,
[8] ἀλλ᾿ οὐχὶ ἐρεῖ αὐτῷ· ἑτοίμασον τί δειπνήσω, καὶ περιζωσάμενος διακόνει μοι ἕως φάγω καὶ πίω, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα φάγεσαι καὶ πίεσαι σύ;
[9] μὴ χάριν ἔχει τῷ δούλῳ ἐκείνῳ ὅτι ἐποίησε τὰ διαταχθέντα; οὐ δοκῶ.
[10] οὕτω καὶ ὑμεῖς, ὅταν ποιήσητε πάντα τὰ διαταχθέντα ὑμῖν, λέγετε ὅτι δοῦλοι ἀχρεῖοί ἐσμεν, ὅτι ὃ ὠφείλομεν ποιῆσαι πεποιήκαμεν.
Comments
[5] πρόσθες ἡμῖν: 2nd pers. sg., aor. imper. < προστίθημι, ‘I add’ (cl. Gk & LXX: LSJ s.v., I.1 & Muraoka 1); here the meaning is ‘increase over and above what someone already possesses’, a meaning very close to LXX Ec. 1.16.
[6] εἰ ἔχετε πίστιν ὡς κόκκον σινάπεως, ἐλέγετε ἂν τῇ συκαμίνῳ ταύτῃ: a mixture of conditional clauses; in Gk we would expect the syntax ‘If you had (εἰχετε) faith as [i.e. as great as] a mustard seed, you would say…’ This would be an ordinary contrary-to-fact conditional sentence. Instead Jesus says, ‘If you have (ἔχετε) faith, you would say..’ , in which the if-clause expresses something real. Evidently the Apostles do not have even a scintilla of faith.
The hypothetical uprooting of the mulberry tree that Jesus points to (τῇ συκαμίνῳ ταύτῃ) and its transplantation into the sea are a rhetorical adynaton (‘impossibility’).
[8] οὐχὶ ἐρεῖ αὐτῷ…;: the negative particle οὐ (οὐκ, οὐχί) introduces a question to which the answer is ‘yes’. Thus: ‘He’ll say to him, won’t he?’
[9] μὴ χάριν ἔχει τῷ δούλῳ ἐκείνῳ ὅτι ἐποίησε τὰ διαταχθέντα;: χάριν ἔχω τινί is a cl. Gk idiom for ‘I thank someone, I am grateful to someone’. The negative particle μὴ flags a question to which is answer is negative. Jesus immediately answers his own question: οὐ δοκῶ, ‘I don’t think so’.
[10] δοῦλοι ἀχρεῖοί ἐσμεν: ἀχρεῖος, ‘useless’ (already in Hesiod); the idea here is that we are ‘good-for-nothing slaves’.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 