St Luke 19:1-10
Zacchaeus climbs high to see Jesus
19:1He entered Jericho and was passing through it.
19:2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.
19:3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature.
19:4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.
19:5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”
19:6 So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him.
19:7 All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”
19:8 Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”
19:9 Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.
19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
[1] Καὶ εἰσελθὼν διήρχετο τὴν ῾Ιεριχώ·
[2] καὶ ἰδοὺ ἀνὴρ ὀνόματι καλούμενος Ζακχαῖος, καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν ἀρχιτελώνης, καὶ οὗτος ἦν πλούσιος,
[3] καὶ ἐζήτει ἰδεῖν τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν τίς ἐστι, καὶ οὐκ ἠδύνατο ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄχλου, ὅτι τῇ ἡλικίᾳ μικρὸς ἦν.
[4] καὶ προδραμὼν ἔμπροσθεν ἀνέβη ἐπὶ συκομορέαν, ἵνα ἴδῃ αὐτόν, ὅτι ἐκείνης ἤμελλε διέρχεσθαι.
[5] καὶ ὡς ἦλθεν ἐπὶ τὸν τόπον, ἀναβλέψας ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς εἶδεν αὐτὸν καὶ εἶπε πρὸς αὐτόν· Ζακχαῖε, σπεύσας κατάβηθι· σήμερον γὰρ ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ σου δεῖ με μεῖναι.
[6] καὶ σπεύσας κατέβη, καὶ ὑπεδέξατο αὐτὸν χαίρων.
[7] καὶ ἰδόντες πάντες διεγόγγυζον λέγοντες ὅτι παρὰ ἁμαρτωλῷ ἀνδρὶ εἰσῆλθε καταλῦσαι.
[8] σταθεὶς δὲ Ζακχαῖος εἶπε πρὸς τὸν Κύριον· ἰδοὺ τὰ ἡμίση τῶν ὑπαρχόντων μου, Κύριε, δίδωμι τοῖς πτωχοῖς, καὶ εἴ τινός τι ἐσυκοφάντησα, ἀποδίδωμι τετραπλοῦν.
[9] εἶπε δὲ πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς ὅτι σήμερον σωτηρία τῷ οἴκῳ τούτῳ ἐγένετο, καθότι καὶ αὐτὸς υἱὸς ᾿Αβραάμ ἐστιν.
[10] ἦλθε γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ζητῆσαι καὶ σῶσαι τὸ ἀπολωλός.
Comments
In first two-thirds of the pericope (vv. 1-7) the successive independent sentences are linked by the connective conjunction καί, which recurs 12 times. The parataxis reflects the style of vernacular storytelling and oral narrative in general. St Luke here writes much as a 1st century speaker of Greek would have narrated the episode before hearers. For an extensive example of colloquial narrative parataxis, see St Mark 4.1-8. In vv. 8 and 9, St Luke switches to the conjunction δέ. In v. 8 it has a continuative force (‘Now, Zakhaios stood…’).
* The syntax of the two vbs in the present tense, ‘I give’ and ‘I compensate’ in v. 10 is a matter for debate.
[2] καὶ ἰδοὺ ἀνὴρ ὀνόματι καλούμενος Ζακχαῖος: ἰδοὺ is attested in classical Greek, but esp. freq. in the LXX and NT; of all NT authors, Matthew and Luke use this word most often (Matth. 62 times, Luke 57). It is an interjection that gives dramatic point in oral speech, the equivalent of ‘look here’, ‘behold’, ‘aha‘, ‘voilá’, and the Hebrew hinneh הִנֵּה
Now for the grammar: ἰδοὺ < εἴδω (an unrecorded vb = ‘to see’): ἰδοὺ is the 2nd pers. sg. imperative of εἰδόμην, 2nd aorist, middle voice. This imperative is used absolutely, i.e. without an obj. It is has an adverbial force, and can also be classified as a ‘demonstrative particle’ (Exegetical Dict. of the NT, eds H. Balz & G. Schneider [henceforth EDNT])—i.e., a deictic word that points to something of note or signals another stage in the narrative.
ὀνόματι: dat. of respect (‘with respect to his name’), essentially a dat. of manner (‘by name’). Luke could have omitted καλούμενος (‘called’).
[2] ἀρχιτελώνης: compound nouns prefixed by ἀρχι-(‘chief’, head’) seem to be common in Hellenistic Greek; an indication of hierarchical occupations and functions.
[3]καὶ ἐζήτει ἰδεῖν τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν τίς ἐστι: < ζητῶ (έω), ‘I seek to do’ + inf. (a classical usage). as ἰδεῖν < ὁρῶ (άω) ‘Ι see’. ἐζήτει is an ‘conative imperfect’ expressing an attempted action.
τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν τίς ἐστι: τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν is the obj. of the inf. ἰδεῖν; note that ᾿Ιησοῦς declinable in Greek.
τίς ἐστι (‘who is he’) is in indirect discourse introduced by the interrogative pronoun τίς. Though the action is situated in the past, the vb of the indirect question is expressed in the present tense for the sake of vividness. (Ιn classical Greek the indir. question could also have been introduced by the relative pronoun ὅστις, and ἐστι could have been replaced by the optative εἴη; the optative became obsolete in koine.)
The proleptic construction ‘he sought to see Jesus who is he’ is typical in classical Greek: the obj. of the main vb becomes in effect the subject of the indirect question.
ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄχλου: the preposition ἀπὸ + genitive can be used to denote cause.
τῇ ἡλικίᾳ μικρὸς: ἡλικίᾳ, ‘size; stature’ (LXX: Muraoka s.v., 3); dat. of respect.
[4] προδραμὼν ἔμπροσθεν: προδραμὼν, 2nd aor. part., προτρέχω, abs., ‘run forward, run forth’. ἔμπροσθεν, adv. of place, ‘in front’ (LSJ s.v., I.1). ‘In front’ after ‘running forward’ may sound pleonastic, but it conveys Zakhaios’ eagerness to gain as close a view of Jesus as possible.
[5] ἀναβλέψας: aor. part. ἀναβλέπω, ‘Ι look up’ (as in classical Greek). Τhe prefix/ preverb ἀνα- connotes upward motion (cf. ἀνίσταμαι, ‘I rise’).
κατάβηθι: 2nd pers. sg., 2nd aor. imperative < καταβαίνω, ‘I descend, come down’. The prefix/preverb κατα- connotes downward motion.
σήμερον: emphatic at the head of the sentence; something special was to happen that day. Cf. v. 9, σήμερον σωτηρία τῷ οἴκῳ τούτῳ ἐγένετο (‘TODAY salvation has come to this house’).
δεῖ με μεῖναι: the impersonal vb δεῖ + inf., ‘it is necessary’, ‘I must…’ δεῖ here means ‘it is destined’, as others have noted.
[6] κατέβη: 2nd aor. < καταβαίνω. Cf. Jesus’ command in v.5, κατάβηθι.
[7] διεγόγγυζον: < γογγύζω, ‘Ι grumble’; the prefix δια- in the compound διεγόγγυζον (imperfect) takes on the meaning ‘they grumbled, muttered among themselves’. γογγύζω is onomatopoeic as is Engl. ‘grumble’. One can hear the undercurrent of grumbling and murmuring in the crowd, the ὄχλος. See also EDNT, s.v. γογγύζω.
ἁμαρτωλῷ ἀνδρὶ: lit., ‘a sinner man’; ἁμαρτωλῷ is emphatic.
καταλῦσαι: aor. inf. < καταλύω, ‘Ι lodge’, ‘I rest’. This compound (κατά + λύω) mainly means ‘I dissolve’, ‘I destroy’ (in class. & NT Greek; cf. English ‘catastrophe’). Only Luke uses the vb in the special sense of ‘I lodge’; see EDNT, s.v. This meaning goes back to Homer (lit., ‘I unharness’, ‘I unyoke’ a horse, Od. 4.28), and in class. Greek and LXX, κ. could be used intransitively to mean, as here, ‘I take up lodging’ or ‘stay temporarily at somebody else’s (Muraoka s.v., 3a, b). Like Joseph and Mary in Luke’s Nativity account, travellers unharnessed their pack animals before ‘checking in’ to an ‘inn’ or a κατάλυμα, a Hellenistic term. A literal-minded reader might wonder whether Jesus arrived on an animal.
[8] σταθεὶς: aor. part., pass. voice, ἵσταμαι, ‘I stand’. Zacchaios, short of stature, stood upright.
ἰδοὺ …δίδωμι τοῖς πτωχοῖς: ἰδοὺ, as in v.2, marks a dramatic juncture or transition. Something dramatic is happening, and it is sudden: ‘Behold!’ We might interpret the present tense vbs δίδωμι (‘I give’) and ἀποδίδωμι (‘I compensate’) either as (i) conative (or inchoative), i.e., ‘I try to give’, ‘I am going to give’, or ii) iterative, i.e., ‘I make a practice of giving’, ‘I customarily give’. For the latter, cf. the Pharisee’s prayer in Luke 18:12, νηστεύω δὶς τοῦ σαββάτου, ἀποδεκατῶ πάντα ὅσα κτῶμαι (‘I fast twice a week, I tithe all my income’).
τοῖς πτωχοῖς: < πτωχός,‘poor’ (adj. & noun).
εἴ τινός τι ἐσυκοφάντησα: < συκοφαντῶ (έω) τινός τι (+ gen. pers. + acc. obj.), ‘I extort something (with false charges or by fraud) from someone’. σ. also occurs in classical and LXX Greek (see Muraoka s.v., 2).
τετραπλοῦν: < τετραπλοῦς, ῆ, oῦν (adj.), ‘quadruple, fourfold’; the neuter adj. τετραπλοῦν is used here as an adverb. Cf. English ‘tetraplegic’.
[9] σωτηρία τῷ οἴκῳ τούτῳ ἐγένετο: ἐγένετο, 2nd aor. < γίνομαι (koine for γίγνομαι), ‘come about’, ‘happen’ (see EDNT, s.v.).
τῷ οἴκῳ τούτῳ: dat. of place or interest.
[10] ἦλθε γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ζητῆσαι καὶ σῶσαι τὸ ἀπολωλός: ζητῆσαι καὶ σῶσαι are infinitives of purpose construed with ἦλθε. This is common in NT Greek; in class. Greek a participle in the future tense would be used instead to express purpose.
τὸ ἀπολωλός: acc.neuter perf. participle < ἀπόλλυμαι, middle voice; the middle pf. ἀπόλωλα = ‘Ι am lost’. ‘The lost one’ (neuter) presumably refers to a sheep (πρόβατον).
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 