19th October 2025, 19th  Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 18:1-8

A widow begs for justice

18:1 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.

18:2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people.

18:3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my accuser.’

18:4 For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone,

18:5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’”

18:6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.

18:7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?

18:8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

^[1] Ἔλεγε δὲ καὶ παραβολὴν αὐτοῖς πρὸς τὸ δεῖν πάντοτε προσεύχεσθαι αὐτοὺς καὶ μὴ ἐκκακεῖν,

 ^[2] λέγων· κριτής τις ἦν ἔν τινι πόλει τὸν Θεὸν μὴ φοβούμενος καὶ ἄνθρωπον μὴ ἐντρεπόμενος.

 ^[3] χήρα δὲ ἦν ἐν τῇ πόλει ἐκείνῃ, καὶ ἤρχετο πρὸς αὐτὸν λέγουσα· ἐκδίκησόν με ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀντιδίκου μου.

 ^[4]  καὶ οὐκ ἠθέλησεν ἐπὶ χρόνον· μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα εἶπεν ἐν ἑαυτῷ· εἰ καὶ τὸν Θεὸν οὐ φοβοῦμαι καὶ ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἐντρέπομαι,

 ^[5] διά γε τὸ παρέχειν μοι κόπον τὴν χήραν ταύτην ἐκδικήσω αὐτήν, ἵνα μὴ εἰς τέλος ἐρχομένη ὑπωπιάζῃ με. 

^[6] εἶπε δὲ ὁ Κύριος· ἀκούσατε τί ὁ κριτὴς τῆς ἀδικίας λέγει· 

^[7]  ὁ δὲ Θεὸς οὐ μὴ ποιήσῃ τὴν ἐκδίκησιν τῶν ἐκλεκτῶν αὐτοῦ τῶν βοώντων πρὸς αὐτὸν ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτός, καὶ μακροθυμῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς;

 ^[8] λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ποιήσει τὴν ἐκδίκησιν αὐτῶν ἐν τάχει. πλὴν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐλθὼν ἆρα εὑρήσει τὴν πίστιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς;

Comments

[1] τὸ δεῖν πάντοτε προσεύχεσθαι αὐτοὺς καὶ μὴ ἐκκακεῖν: τὸ δεῖν, an articular inf.; the impers. vb δεῖ  c. acc. pers. et inf. means ‘it is needful, one must’. They (αὐτοὺς) must do what? ‘Always pray and not lose heart/ give up’. ἐκκακέω is not attested in cl. Gk or the LXX. πάντοτε: ‘at all times, always’ (koine, already in Arist. 1166a 28). Προσεύχομαι, ‘I offer prayers’ (cl. Gk: LSJ s.v., I.2; also in LXX).

[2] τὸν Θεὸν μὴ φοβούμενος καὶ ἄνθρωπον μὴ ἐντρεπόμενος: ἐντρέπομαι, mid. voice, c. acc. pers., ‘show respect to’, (LXX: Muraoka s.v., 1). Lit., ‘not God (A) fearing (B) nor human being(s) (A’) respecting (B’)’. This parallelism will be repeated in the condition in v. 4, εἰ καὶ τὸν Θεὸν οὐ φοβοῦμαι καὶ ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἐντρέπομαι.

[3] ἤρχετο πρὸς αὐτὸν: the impf. ‘she was coming to him, she kept coming to him’ expresses a persistent action (‘iterative imperfect’).

[5] ἐκδικήσω αὐτήν: ἐκδικέω, ‘to requite, take up someone’s cause in response to an injustice’ (LXX: Muraoka s.v., 1a). God does this in Nahum 1.2a. Cf. the noun τὴν ἐκδίκησιν, ‘vindication’, in vv. 7 and 8.

[6] ὁ κριτὴς τῆς ἀδικίας: τῆς ἀδικίας, ‘of unrighteousness’ is a genet. of quality. The construction is probably a Hebraism, as others have noted.

[7] οὐ μὴ ποιήσῃ τὴν ἐκδίκησιν…;: an emphatic question. In cl. Gk this particular type of question (Οὐ μὴ +2nd pers. sg. fut.) is in effect a prohibition, e.g., Clouds 367, Οὐ μὴ ληρήσεις; (‘Will you NOT stop speaking nonsense?’). In our text, the question is cast in the 3rd pers. sg., and is far from being a prohibition. It is rather the negative statement ‘God will (definitely) NOT carry out the vindication’ turned into a question to which an affirmative answer is expected. In NT Greek, οὐ μὴ + subj. or fut. indicative may sometimes serve as a strong negation of a future action or state. This construction is used in quotations from LXX and Jesus (Blass-Debr.- Funk, par. 365, p. 184).