Luke 18: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jesus tells two parables about prayer: a widow who keeps demanding justice from a judge who does not care, and a Pharisee and a tax collector praying in the temple. He then welcomes little children, tells a rich ruler to sell everything and follow him, and speaks about wealth, about what those who have left family behind will receive, and about his coming death and rising in Jerusalem. On the way to Jericho, he heals a blind beggar who calls him Son of David. The chapter gathers Jesus' teaching on humble, persistent trust as he travels toward Jerusalem.

Claim by Claim

1. 18:1
   • Jesus spoke a parable to them.
   • The purpose of the parable was that people ought always to pray.
   • The purpose of the parable was that people ought not to lose heart.
2. 18:2
   • Jesus said there was a judge in a certain city.
   • The judge did not fear God.
   • The judge did not respect any man.
3. 18:3
   • There was a widow in that city.
   • The widow kept coming to the judge.
   • The widow said to him, 'Give me justice against my adversary.'
4. 18:4
   • The judge refused for a time.
   • Afterward the judge said within himself, 'Though I do not fear God,'
   • The judge said he did not respect man.
5. 18:5
   • The judge said that because this widow troubles him, he will give her justice.
   • The judge said he would act so that she would not wear him out by her continual coming.
6. 18:6
   • The Lord said, 'Hear what the unjust judge says.'
7. 18:7
   • Jesus asked whether God will not bring about justice for his own elect.
   • The elect cry out to God day and night.
   • Jesus asked whether God bears long with them.
8. 18:8
   • Jesus said that God will bring about justice for them speedily.
   • Jesus asked whether the Son of man, when he comes, will find faith on the earth.
9. 18:9
   • Jesus spoke this parable to certain people.
   • Those people trusted in themselves that they were righteous.
   • Those people despised others.
10. 18:10
    • Two men went up into the temple to pray.
    • One of the two was a Pharisee.
    • The other was a tax collector.
11. 18:11
    • The Pharisee stood and prayed by himself.
    • The Pharisee said, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men.'
    • The Pharisee listed other men as extortioners, unjust, and adulterers.
    • The Pharisee said he was not like this tax collector.
12. 18:12
    • The Pharisee said he fasts twice a week.
    • The Pharisee said he gives a tenth of all that he acquires.
13. 18:13
    • The tax collector stood far off.
    • The tax collector was unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven.
    • The tax collector beat his breast.
    • The tax collector said, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner.'
14. 18:14
    • Jesus said this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.
    • Jesus said everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.
    • Jesus said the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
15. 18:15
    • People brought infants to Jesus.
    • They brought them so that he would touch them.
    • The disciples saw this.
    • The disciples rebuked those who brought them.
16. 18:16
    • Jesus called the children to him.
    • Jesus said to let the little children come to him.
    • Jesus said not to forbid them.
    • Jesus said the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
17. 18:17
    • Jesus said, 'Truly I say to you.'
    • Jesus said whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.
18. 18:18
    • A certain ruler asked Jesus a question.
    • The ruler addressed him as 'Good Teacher.'
    • The ruler asked what he must do to inherit eternal life.
19. 18:19
    • Jesus asked him why he called him good.
    • Jesus said no one is good except one, that is God.
20. 18:20
    • Jesus said, 'You know the commandments.'
    • Jesus cited: do not commit adultery.
    • Jesus cited: do not kill.
    • Jesus cited: do not steal.
    • Jesus cited: do not bear false witness.
    • Jesus cited: honor your father and your mother.
21. 18:21
    • The ruler said he had kept all these from his youth.
22. 18:22
    • Jesus heard these things.
    • Jesus told him he still lacked one thing.
    • Jesus told him to sell all that he had.
    • Jesus told him to distribute it to the poor.
    • Jesus said he would then have treasure in heaven.
    • Jesus told him to come and follow him.
23. 18:23
    • When the ruler heard this, he became very sorrowful.
    • The ruler was very rich.
24. 18:24
    • Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful.
    • Jesus said how hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God.
25. 18:25
    • Jesus said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
26. 18:26
    • Those who heard it asked who then can be saved.
27. 18:27
    • Jesus said the things that are impossible with men are possible with God.
28. 18:28
    • Peter said, 'Look, we have left all our own things and followed you.'
29. 18:29
    • Jesus said to them, 'Truly I say to you.'
    • Jesus said there is no one who has left house, or parents, or brothers, or wife, or children for the sake of the kingdom of God
30. 18:30
    • who will not receive manifold more in this present time,
    • and in the age to come eternal life.
31. 18:31
    • Jesus took the twelve aside.
    • Jesus said to them, 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem.'
    • Jesus said all things written by the prophets concerning the Son of man will be accomplished.
32. 18:32
    • Jesus said he will be delivered to the Gentiles.
    • Jesus said he will be mocked.
    • Jesus said he will be insulted.
    • Jesus said he will be spit upon.
33. 18:33
    • Jesus said they will scourge him.
    • Jesus said they will put him to death.
    • Jesus said the third day he will rise again.
34. 18:34
    • The disciples understood none of these things.
    • This saying was hidden from them.
    • They did not know the things that were spoken.
35. 18:35
    • As Jesus came near to Jericho, a certain blind man was sitting by the roadside.
    • The blind man was begging.
36. 18:36
    • The blind man heard the crowd passing by.
    • He asked what this was.
37. 18:37
    • They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by.
38. 18:38
    • He cried out, 'Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.'
39. 18:39
    • Those who went ahead rebuked him so that he would be quiet.
    • He cried out much more, 'Son of David, have mercy on me.'
40. 18:40
    • Jesus stopped.
    • Jesus commanded the man to be brought to him.
    • When the man came near, Jesus asked him a question.
41. 18:41
    • Jesus asked what he wanted him to do for him.
    • The man said, 'Lord, that I may receive my sight.'
42. 18:42
    • Jesus said to him, 'Receive your sight.'
    • Jesus said his faith had saved him.
43. 18:43
    • Immediately he received his sight.
    • He followed Jesus.
    • He glorified God.
    • All the people saw it.
    • All the people gave praise to God.

Words Worth Explaining

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

18:1

The King James "not to faint" does not mean fainting in the sense of passing out. In 1611 the word meant losing heart or giving up under strain, which is what the Greek says here.

18:2

In a town of this size a single judge heard cases alone, with no jury. The two things said about him, that he did not fear God and did not care what people thought, remove both of the checks that normally restrained such a man: religious scruple and public reputation.

18:3

"Avenge me of mine adversary" is legal language, not revenge. She is asking the court to rule in her favor against the other party in a lawsuit. A widow in this world usually had no man to speak for her and little standing to press a claim, which is why the Hebrew scriptures repeatedly command judges to protect widows; a judge who ignored one was ignoring a well known duty.

18:5

The Greek word behind "weary me" is a boxing term meaning to strike under the eye, that is, to give someone a black eye. It is used here as an exaggeration for wearing a person down, the way we might say she will beat me into the ground.

18:7

"His own elect" means the people God has chosen for himself. The last clause is genuinely disputed in the Greek and can be read either as "and yet he is patient over them" or as "while he keeps delaying over them." The rendering keeps it as a question about delay, but the other reading is possible.

18:8

"Son of man" is the phrase Jesus most often uses of himself in the Gospels. In ordinary Aramaic it can mean simply "a human being," but it also points to a figure in the book of Daniel who is given lasting authority over all peoples, and the New Testament writers use it in that heavier sense.

18:10

The temple stood on a raised platform in Jerusalem, so people always spoke of "going up" to it. A Pharisee belonged to a movement devoted to strict and detailed observance of the Jewish law; Pharisees were widely respected as serious, careful, religious men. A "publican" in the King James is not an innkeeper. He is a tax collector, a Jew who had contracted to collect taxes for the Roman occupiers and who typically took a cut by overcharging. Such men were despised as both collaborators and thieves.

18:11

The Greek of "stood and prayed thus with himself" is ambiguous and can mean either that he stood off by himself to pray or that he prayed silently, to himself. "Extortioners" are people who take money by threat or fraud, and "unjust" means dishonest in dealings generally.

18:12

The law required a general fast on only one day a year, the Day of Atonement. Fasting twice a week, commonly Mondays and Thursdays, was a voluntary extra. A tithe was the tenth part of crops and produce owed under the law; paying a tenth of everything he acquires, including goods already tithed by the seller, goes beyond what was required.

18:13

Standing at a distance keeps him away from the inner courts. The usual posture for prayer was standing with the eyes lifted, so refusing to look up marks shame. Beating the chest was a gesture of grief and self reproach. The Greek of his prayer is closer to "be favorable toward me" and uses a word associated with atonement, and he says "the sinner," as though he were the only one.

18:14

"Justified" is a courtroom word: to be declared in the right, acquitted. "Abased" simply means brought low or humbled.

18:15

Parents brought children to a respected teacher so that he would lay hands on them and bless them. The disciples' rebuke is aimed at the adults doing the bringing, not at the babies.

18:16

"Suffer little children to come unto me" uses "suffer" in its old sense of allow or let. It has nothing to do with pain.

18:17

"Verily" means truly, and "in no wise" means by no means, not in any way. Jesus's "verily" translates the Hebrew word amen, used here at the start of a sentence to mark what follows as weighty.

18:18

The word translated "ruler" means a man holding official position, such as a leader of a synagogue or a member of a governing council; Luke does not say which. "Master" in the King James normally means teacher, not owner. "Inherit eternal life" borrows the language of receiving a family estate, and "eternal life" means the life of the age to come.

18:20

These are five of the Ten Commandments, the ones dealing with how people treat each other. "Bear false witness" specifically means giving false testimony in a legal case, where a lie could cost someone property or life.

18:21

A Jewish boy was held responsible for keeping the commandments from about the age of thirteen, so "from my youth up" claims a lifetime of observance, not a vague general goodness.

18:22

"Treasure in heaven" was a familiar expression in Jewish teaching for wealth stored where it cannot be stolen or lost, and giving to the poor was the standard way of describing how it was deposited there.

18:24

"How hardly" means how hard it is, with what difficulty. It does not mean harshly.

18:25

The Greek word is an ordinary sewing needle, and the saying is a deliberate exaggeration setting the largest animal people knew against the smallest opening. The popular explanation that "the needle's eye" was a narrow gate in Jerusalem has no ancient evidence behind it and appears only many centuries later.

18:26

The shock in the question comes from a common assumption of the time that wealth was a mark of God's favor. If those apparently most blessed were at a disadvantage, the hearers could not see who was left.

18:28

"Lo" is just an old way of saying "look" or "see here." Peter and his partners had a fishing business, so "we have left all" means a working livelihood, not merely possessions.

18:29

In this society your household, land and relatives were your entire security and identity; leaving them was not a lifestyle choice but a loss of everything that kept you safe.

18:30

"The world to come" translates a word meaning age or era, not planet. The contrast is between the present period of history and the one expected to follow it.

18:31

"We go up to Jerusalem" is the standard idiom: Jerusalem sits high in the hill country, so people spoke of going up to it from any direction. "The twelve" are the twelve disciples Jesus had chosen as his closest followers.

18:32

"Gentiles" means anyone not Jewish; here it points to the Roman authorities. "Spitefully entreated" uses "entreat" in its old sense of treat or handle, so it means treated shamefully, not begged. "Spitted on" is simply an older past form of spat on; spitting in a person's face was a public insult.

18:33

"Scourge" means flogging with a whip, a standard Roman punishment that preceded execution and could itself be lethal. "The third day" is counted inclusively in this way of reckoning, so the day of death counts as the first.

18:35

Jericho lay in the Jordan valley about fifteen miles northeast of Jerusalem, on the route pilgrims took up to the city for festivals, which explains the crowd. A blind man had no way to earn a living, so begging beside a busy road was the only option open to him.

18:37

Nazareth was the small town where Jesus grew up. People often named someone by the town they came from.

18:38

"Son of David" was a title for the promised king descended from David who was expected to restore Israel. Shouting it at Jesus in a festival crowd was a public claim about who he was, which is part of why the people ahead tried to silence the man.

18:39

"Hold his peace" is an old phrase meaning be quiet.

18:42

The Greek verb behind "thy faith hath saved thee" carries both senses at once: to rescue or save, and to heal or make whole. English has to pick one; the original does not.