Luke 10: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jesus appoints seventy others and sends them out in pairs ahead of him with instructions about what to carry, where to stay, and what to say in towns that welcome them and towns that do not. He speaks judgment against Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and when the seventy return glad that demons obeyed them, he tells them to rejoice instead that their names are written in heaven. An expert in the law asks what he must do to inherit eternal life and then asks who his neighbor is, and Jesus answers with the story of the traveler helped by a Samaritan. The chapter ends in a village where Martha welcomes Jesus and complains that her sister Mary is not helping her serve.

Claim by Claim

1. 10:1
   • After these things the Lord appointed seventy others.
   • The Lord sent them out two by two ahead of himself.
   • He sent them to every city and place where he himself was about to come.
2. 10:2
   • Jesus said to them that the harvest is great.
   • Jesus said the workers are few.
   • Jesus told them to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.
3. 10:3
   • Jesus told them to go.
   • Jesus said he was sending them out as lambs among wolves.
4. 10:4
   • Jesus told them to carry no purse.
   • Jesus told them to carry no bag.
   • Jesus told them to carry no sandals.
   • Jesus told them to greet no one along the road.
5. 10:5
   • Jesus said that in whatever house they enter, they are first to say, Peace be to this house.
6. 10:6
   • Jesus said that if a son of peace is there, their peace will rest upon him.
   • Jesus said that if not, their peace will return to them.
7. 10:7
   • Jesus told them to remain in that same house.
   • Jesus told them to eat and drink what is provided by the people there.
   • Jesus said the worker is worthy of his wages.
   • Jesus told them not to move from house to house.
8. 10:8
   • Jesus said that in whatever city they enter where the people receive them, they are to eat what is set before them.
9. 10:9
   • Jesus told them to heal the sick in that city.
   • Jesus told them to say to those people that the kingdom of God has come near to them.
10. 10:10
    • Jesus said that in whatever city they enter where the people do not receive them, they are to go out into its streets and speak.
11. 10:11
    • They are to say that they wipe off against the people even the dust of that city which clings to them.
    • They are to say that the people should be sure of this: the kingdom of God has come near to them.
12. 10:12
    • Jesus said it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.
13. 10:13
    • Jesus pronounced woe upon Chorazin.
    • Jesus pronounced woe upon Bethsaida.
    • Jesus said that if the mighty works done in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been done in Tyre and Sidon, those cities would have repented long ago.
    • Jesus said they would have repented sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
14. 10:14
    • Jesus said it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for Chorazin and Bethsaida.
15. 10:15
    • Jesus said that Capernaum is exalted to heaven.
    • Jesus said that Capernaum will be brought down to the realm of the dead.
16. 10:16
    • Jesus said whoever hears his messengers hears him.
    • Jesus said whoever rejects his messengers rejects him.
    • Jesus said whoever rejects him rejects the one who sent him.
17. 10:17
    • The seventy returned with joy.
    • They said to Jesus that even the demons are subject to them through his name.
18. 10:18
    • Jesus said to them that he watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning.
19. 10:19
    • Jesus said he gives them authority to tread on serpents and scorpions.
    • Jesus said he gives them authority over all the power of the enemy.
    • Jesus said nothing will by any means harm them.
20. 10:20
    • Jesus told them not to rejoice that the spirits are subject to them.
    • Jesus told them rather to rejoice that their names are written in heaven.
21. 10:21
    • In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit.
    • Jesus thanked the Father, Lord of heaven and earth.
    • Jesus said the Father has hidden these things from the wise and prudent.
    • Jesus said the Father has revealed these things to babes.
    • Jesus said that so it seemed good in the Father's sight.
22. 10:22
    • Jesus said all things have been delivered to him by his Father.
    • Jesus said no one knows who the Son is except the Father.
    • Jesus said no one knows who the Father is except the Son.
    • Jesus said the Father is also known to the one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
23. 10:23
    • Jesus turned to his disciples.
    • Jesus spoke to them privately.
    • Jesus said the eyes that see what they see are blessed.
24. 10:24
    • Jesus said many prophets and kings desired to see the things the disciples see.
    • Jesus said those prophets and kings did not see them.
    • Jesus said they desired to hear the things the disciples hear.
    • Jesus said they did not hear them.
25. 10:25
    • A certain lawyer stood up.
    • The lawyer was testing Jesus.
    • The lawyer called Jesus Teacher.
    • The lawyer asked what he must do to inherit eternal life.
26. 10:26
    • Jesus asked him what is written in the law.
    • Jesus asked him how he reads it.
27. 10:27
    • The lawyer answered that one shall love the Lord his God with all his heart.
    • He said with all his soul.
    • He said with all his strength.
    • He said with all his mind.
    • He said one shall love his neighbor as himself.
28. 10:28
    • Jesus told him he had answered rightly.
    • Jesus told him to do this.
    • Jesus told him he would live if he did this.
29. 10:29
    • The lawyer wanted to justify himself.
    • The lawyer asked Jesus who his neighbor is.
30. 10:30
    • Jesus replied with an account of a certain man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
    • The man fell among robbers.
    • The robbers stripped him.
    • The robbers beat him.
    • The robbers went away and left him half dead.
31. 10:31
    • By chance a certain priest was going down that road.
    • The priest saw the man.
    • The priest passed by on the other side.
32. 10:32
    • Likewise a Levite came to that place.
    • The Levite saw the man.
    • The Levite passed by on the other side.
33. 10:33
    • A certain Samaritan was traveling and came where the man was.
    • The Samaritan saw him.
    • The Samaritan had compassion on him.
34. 10:34
    • The Samaritan went to him.
    • The Samaritan bound up his wounds.
    • The Samaritan poured on oil and wine.
    • The Samaritan set him on his own animal.
    • The Samaritan brought him to an inn.
    • The Samaritan took care of him.
35. 10:35
    • The next day the Samaritan took out two denarii.
    • He gave them to the innkeeper.
    • He told the innkeeper to take care of the man.
    • He said he would repay whatever more the innkeeper spent when he returned.
36. 10:36
    • Jesus asked which of the three seemed to have been a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers.
37. 10:37
    • The lawyer answered that it was the one who showed mercy to him.
    • Jesus told him to go.
    • Jesus told him to do likewise.
38. 10:38
    • As they traveled, Jesus entered a certain village.
    • A woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
39. 10:39
    • Martha had a sister called Mary.
    • Mary sat at the Lord's feet.
    • Mary listened to his word.
40. 10:40
    • Martha was distracted by much serving.
    • Martha came to Jesus.
    • Martha asked whether he did not care that her sister had left her to serve alone.
    • Martha told him to tell her sister to help her.
41. 10:41
    • Jesus answered her, addressing her as Martha, Martha.
    • Jesus said she was anxious and troubled about many things.
42. 10:42
    • Jesus said one thing is needful.
    • Jesus said Mary has chosen the good portion.
    • Jesus said it will not be taken away from her.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

10:1

Greek manuscripts differ here: some read "seventy," others "seventy-two." Both numbers carry an echo of the list of the world's nations in Genesis 10, which the Hebrew text counts as seventy and the old Greek version as seventy-two. Sending messengers in pairs was normal practice, since under Jewish law a matter was established on the word of two witnesses.

10:2

"Labourers" here means hired field hands at harvest time. Grain had to be cut and gathered fast, in a short window, before it spoiled or was lost to weather, so a large crop with too few workers was a genuine emergency rather than a mild inconvenience.

10:3

Lambs cannot fight or run fast. Jesus is saying his messengers will have no way to protect themselves.

10:4

Purse means a money bag worn at the belt; "scrip" was a traveler's shoulder bag for food and spare goods. The order not to "salute" anyone is not a rule against politeness: a roadside greeting in that culture involved extended inquiries, blessings and sometimes a shared meal. The point is speed.

10:5

The greeting is the ordinary Hebrew and Aramaic one, "shalom," wishing wholeness and wellbeing on the household. In this instruction the wish is treated as something real that can settle on a house or come back unclaimed.

10:6

"The son of peace" is a Hebrew way of speaking. To be a son of something is to be characterized by it, so a son of peace is a person whose disposition is peaceable, one who will welcome the messengers.

10:7

"Hire" in 1611 English means wages or pay, not the act of employing someone. Moving "from house to house" would mean accepting successive invitations and angling for a better host.

10:9

"The kingdom of God" is not a territory but God's active rule breaking in. The Greek verb behind "is come nigh" is ambiguous in the same way the English is: it can mean the rule has drawn near, or that it has arrived.

10:11

Shaking or wiping the dust of a place off the feet was a recognized gesture of disowning it, marking the place as foreign ground for which the traveler takes no further responsibility.

10:12

Sodom is the city destroyed by fire in Genesis 19, which had become the standard shorthand for a community that refused its visitors and was judged for it. "That day" is the day of judgment, named without further description.

10:13

"Woe" here is a cry of grief rather than a curse, the sound a mourner makes. Chorazin and Bethsaida were small towns near Capernaum, in the area where Jesus had done most of his work. Tyre and Sidon were wealthy Phoenician seaports on the coast to the northwest, outside Israel, and the prophets had denounced them for generations, which is what makes the comparison sting. Sitting in sackcloth (coarse goat hair cloth) and ashes was the standard public sign of grief and repentance.

10:15

The wording plays on Isaiah's taunt against the king of Babylon, who is lifted to heaven and then cast down. The word rendered "hell" is Hades, the Greek name for the underworld where the dead go. It means the grave or the realm of the dead, not the later Christian picture of a place of punishment.

10:16

"Despiseth" in 1611 English means rejects or sets aside, a stronger and more active word than the modern "looks down on."

10:17

"Devils" is the King James rendering of the Greek word "daimonia," which modern translations give as demons. The one Devil, Satan, is a separate word. To act "through thy name" means on someone's authority, the way an officer acts in the name of a king.

10:18

"Satan" comes from a Hebrew word meaning the adversary or the accuser, originally a role in a courtroom scene rather than a personal name. The comparison to lightning stresses the speed and suddenness of the fall.

10:19

The Greek uses two different words that the King James both renders with "power": the first is authority, a delegated right to act, and the second is raw strength. Snakes and scorpions were genuine hazards on Judean roads and also stock images for hostile spiritual powers.

10:20

The image is of a citizen register. Ancient cities kept lists of those who belonged, and the Hebrew scriptures speak of a book in which God records his people.

10:21

Manuscripts differ between "rejoiced in spirit" and "rejoiced in the Holy Spirit." "Prudent" in 1611 English means intelligent or learned, not cautious. "Babes" translates a Greek word for infants or very small children, used here for people with no learning and no standing.

10:22

"Delivered" in 1611 English means handed over or entrusted, not rescued.

10:23

"Blessed" translates a Greek word meaning fortunate or enviable, the standard opening of a congratulation rather than a religious formula.

10:24

A prophet was someone who spoke messages from God to the people. Many had waited their whole lives for what was happening now.

10:25

"Lawyer" does not mean an attorney. It means a scholar of the law of Moses, a professional interpreter of scripture. "Tempted" in 1611 English means tested or put to the proof, with no necessary sense of luring into sin. "Master" is the older English word for teacher.

10:26

"How readest thou" asks how the man recites and interprets the text, not whether he can read. The passage he reaches for was recited daily by observant Jews.

10:27

The answer stitches together two separate commands: love for God from Deuteronomy 6:5, part of the daily prayer known as the Shema, and love of neighbor from Leviticus 19:18. In Leviticus the neighbor is a fellow Israelite, which is precisely the boundary the next question probes.

10:29

"Justify himself" means to show that he was in the right, to come out of the exchange with his position defended.

10:30

The road from Jerusalem down to Jericho drops about 3,300 feet in roughly seventeen miles through bare rock country with many places to hide. It had a long reputation for banditry. "Thieves" here translates a word for violent robbers who attack travelers, not sneak thieves.

10:31

A priest served in rotation at the temple in Jerusalem and was bound by purity rules, including one that made contact with a corpse defiling. The man on the road looks dead. Luke does not say what the priest was thinking; the text reports only what he did.

10:32

Levites were men of the tribe of Levi who assisted the priests with the practical work of the temple. Like the priest, he was a religious professional traveling the same road.

10:33

Samaritans were the population of the region between Judea and Galilee who shared much of Israel's scripture and ancestry but worshiped at Mount Gerizim rather than Jerusalem. Jews and Samaritans had been hostile for centuries, and the hearers would not have expected a Samaritan to be the hero of this story.

10:34

Oil and wine were ordinary first aid. The alcohol in the wine cleaned the wound and the olive oil soothed it. The "inn" is a roadside lodging house where a traveler could rent space for himself and his animal.

10:35

"Two pence" translates two denarii. One denarius was about a day's wage for a laborer, so the sum would cover food and lodging for a good stretch of days, and the open promise to cover any extra makes the commitment larger still.

10:37

The expert answers without using the word "Samaritan." He says only "he that shewed mercy on him."

10:38

Hospitality to traveling teachers was a serious social duty, and refusing it was a public insult. Luke says the house was Martha's, which suggests she headed the household herself, something worth noting in a society where property and hosting were usually a man's business. John's Gospel identifies this village as Bethany, just outside Jerusalem.

10:39

To sit at a teacher's feet was the recognized posture of a student receiving instruction. That a woman took this place is the striking detail in the scene.

10:40

"Cumbered" in 1611 English means burdened or dragged in different directions at once. "Serving" translates the Greek word for the work of waiting on a guest, the practical duties of hospitality.

10:41

"Careful" in 1611 English means full of care, that is anxious. It does not mean cautious.

10:42

The manuscripts vary: some read "one thing is needful," others "few things are needful, or one." "Part" translates a word meaning a portion or share, the kind of word used for a helping of food or an allotment of land.