Luke 9: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jesus sends the twelve out with authority over demons and disease, and word about him reaches Herod, who wonders who he is. Jesus feeds about five thousand men from five loaves and two fish; Peter says he is the Christ, and Jesus tells the disciples he must be killed and be raised, and describes what following him costs. On a mountain his face and clothes change while Moses and Elijah speak with him, and a voice from a cloud tells the disciples to listen to him. He then heals a boy with a spirit, settles the disciples' argument about who is greatest, is refused by a Samaritan village, and answers three men who talk about following him as he heads for Jerusalem.

Claim by Claim

1. 9:1
   • Jesus called the twelve disciples together.
   • He gave them power and authority over all demons.
   • He gave them power and authority to cure diseases.
2. 9:2
   • He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God.
   • He sent them out to heal the sick.
3. 9:3
   • He told them to take nothing for the journey.
   • He told them to take no staff.
   • He told them to take no bag.
   • He told them to take no bread.
   • He told them to take no money.
   • He told them not to have two tunics apiece.
4. 9:4
   • He told them that whatever house they entered, they should stay there.
   • He told them to depart from that same house when they left.
5. 9:5
   • He said that where people would not receive them, they should shake the dust off their feet as they left that city.
   • He said this shaking off of dust was to be a testimony against those people.
6. 9:6
   • The disciples departed.
   • They went through the villages.
   • They preached the gospel.
   • They healed everywhere.
7. 9:7
   • Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Jesus.
   • Herod was perplexed.
   • Some people were saying that John had risen from the dead.
8. 9:8
   • Some people were saying that Elijah had appeared.
   • Others were saying that one of the prophets of old had risen again.
9. 9:9
   • Herod said that he had beheaded John.
   • Herod asked who this man was of whom he heard such things.
   • Herod sought to see Jesus.
10. 9:10
    • The apostles returned.
    • The apostles told Jesus all that they had done.
    • Jesus took them and withdrew privately.
    • He withdrew to a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.
11. 9:11
    • The crowds learned of it.
    • The crowds followed Jesus.
    • Jesus received them.
    • He spoke to them about the kingdom of God.
    • He healed those who had need of healing.
12. 9:12
    • The day began to decline.
    • The twelve came to Jesus.
    • They told him to send the crowd away.
    • They said the crowd could go into the surrounding villages and countryside to lodge and find provisions.
    • They said they were in a deserted place.
13. 9:13
    • Jesus told them to give the crowd something to eat.
    • They said they had no more than five loaves and two fish.
    • They said the alternative was for them to go and buy food for all these people.
14. 9:14
    • There were about five thousand men.
    • Jesus told his disciples to make the people sit down in groups of about fifty.
15. 9:15
    • The disciples did so.
    • They made them all sit down.
16. 9:16
    • Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish.
    • He looked up to heaven.
    • He blessed them.
    • He broke them.
    • He gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
17. 9:17
    • They all ate.
    • They were all filled.
    • Twelve baskets of leftover fragments were taken up.
18. 9:18
    • Jesus was praying alone.
    • His disciples were with him.
    • He asked them who the crowds said that he was.
19. 9:19
    • They answered that some said John the Baptist.
    • They said others said Elijah.
    • They said others said that one of the prophets of old had risen again.
20. 9:20
    • Jesus asked them who they said that he was.
    • Peter answered that he was the Christ of God.
21. 9:21
    • Jesus sternly warned them.
    • He commanded them to tell no one that.
22. 9:22
    • Jesus said the Son of man must suffer many things.
    • He said the Son of man must be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes.
    • He said the Son of man must be killed.
    • He said the Son of man must be raised on the third day.
23. 9:23
    • Jesus said to them all that if anyone wants to come after him, that person must deny himself.
    • He said that person must take up his cross daily.
    • He said that person must follow him.
24. 9:24
    • Whoever wants to save his life will lose it.
    • Whoever loses his life for Jesus' sake will save it.
25. 9:25
    • A man gains nothing if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself.
26. 9:26
    • Whoever is ashamed of Jesus and his words, the Son of man will be ashamed of that person.
    • The Son of man will come in his own glory and in his Father's glory and in the glory of the holy angels.
27. 9:27
    • Jesus said he was telling them truly.
    • He said some standing there would not taste death until they saw the kingdom of God.
28. 9:28
    • About eight days passed after these sayings.
    • Jesus took Peter and John and James with him.
    • He went up onto a mountain to pray.
29. 9:29
    • As he prayed, the appearance of his face was changed.
    • His clothing became white and dazzling.
30. 9:30
    • Two men were talking with him.
    • The two men were Moses and Elijah.
31. 9:31
    • They appeared in glory.
    • They spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
32. 9:32
    • Peter and those with him were weighed down with sleep.
    • When they became fully awake, they saw his glory.
    • They saw the two men standing with him.
33. 9:33
    • As the two men were departing from Jesus, Peter spoke to him.
    • Peter called him Master.
    • Peter said it was good for them to be there.
    • Peter proposed making three shelters.
    • Peter said one shelter would be for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
    • Peter did not know what he was saying.
34. 9:34
    • While Peter was speaking, a cloud came.
    • The cloud overshadowed them.
    • They were afraid as they entered into the cloud.
35. 9:35
    • A voice came out of the cloud.
    • The voice said that this is my beloved Son.
    • The voice said to hear him.
36. 9:36
    • When the voice had ceased, Jesus was found alone.
    • They kept silent.
    • They told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.
37. 9:37
    • On the next day they came down from the mountain.
    • A large crowd met him.
38. 9:38
    • A man from the crowd cried out.
    • He called Jesus Master.
    • He begged Jesus to look upon his son.
    • He said the son was his only child.
39. 9:39
    • He said a spirit seizes the boy.
    • He said the boy suddenly cries out.
    • He said the spirit convulses him so that he foams.
    • He said the spirit hardly departs from him.
    • He said the spirit bruises him.
40. 9:40
    • He said he begged Jesus' disciples to cast the spirit out.
    • He said they were not able.
41. 9:41
    • Jesus answered, calling them a faithless and perverse generation.
    • He asked how long he would be with them and bear with them.
    • He told the man to bring his son there.
42. 9:42
    • While the boy was still coming, the demon threw him down.
    • The demon convulsed him.
    • Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit.
    • Jesus healed the child.
    • Jesus gave him back to his father.
43. 9:43
    • They were all amazed at the majesty of God.
    • Everyone was marveling at all the things Jesus did.
    • Jesus spoke to his disciples.
44. 9:44
    • He told them to let these words sink into their ears.
    • He said the Son of man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.
45. 9:45
    • They did not understand this saying.
    • It was hidden from them so that they would not perceive it.
    • They were afraid to ask him about this saying.
46. 9:46
    • An argument arose among them.
    • The argument was about which of them would be greatest.
47. 9:47
    • Jesus perceived the thought of their heart.
    • He took a child.
    • He set the child beside himself.
48. 9:48
    • He said whoever receives this child in his name receives him.
    • He said whoever receives him receives the one who sent him.
    • He said the one who is least among them all is great.
49. 9:49
    • John answered Jesus.
    • He called Jesus Master.
    • He said they saw someone casting out demons in Jesus' name.
    • He said they tried to forbid him.
    • He said the reason was that the man does not follow with them.
50. 9:50
    • Jesus told him not to forbid the man.
    • Jesus said whoever is not against us is for us.
51. 9:51
    • The days of his being taken up were being fulfilled.
    • He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.
52. 9:52
    • He sent messengers ahead of him.
    • They went and entered a village of the Samaritans.
    • Their purpose was to make preparations for him.
53. 9:53
    • The villagers did not receive him.
    • The reason was that his face was set toward going to Jerusalem.
54. 9:54
    • The disciples James and John saw this.
    • They called him Lord.
    • They asked whether he wanted them to command fire to come down from heaven and consume the villagers.
    • They said this was as Elijah did.
55. 9:55
    • Jesus turned.
    • He rebuked them.
    • He said they did not know what manner of spirit they were of.
56. 9:56
    • He said the Son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them.
    • They went to another village.
57. 9:57
    • As they went along the road, a certain man spoke to Jesus.
    • He called Jesus Lord.
    • He said he would follow Jesus wherever he went.
58. 9:58
    • Jesus said foxes have holes.
    • Jesus said the birds of the air have nests.
    • Jesus said the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.
59. 9:59
    • Jesus told another man to follow him.
    • The man called him Lord.
    • The man asked to first go and bury his father.
60. 9:60
    • Jesus told him to let the dead bury their own dead.
    • Jesus told him to go and proclaim the kingdom of God.
61. 9:61
    • Another man also spoke.
    • He called Jesus Lord.
    • He said he would follow Jesus.
    • He asked to first bid farewell to those at his house.
62. 9:62
    • Jesus said that no one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Words Worth Explaining

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

9:1

KJV "devils" translates a Greek word meaning demons: lesser hostile spirits. The 1611 translators used the one English word both for these and for the singular figure of the Devil, so the plural here does not mean many devils in the modern sense.

9:2

"The kingdom of God" renders a phrase that means God's kingly rule or reign rather than a territory. To preach it was to announce that God was beginning to rule, not to describe a place people go.

9:3

"Staves" are walking staffs. A "scrip" is a traveler's leather pouch for carrying food. A "coat" is the tunic worn next to the skin, and travelers routinely carried a spare to sleep in, so "two coats apiece" means a change of clothing rather than an overcoat.

9:5

Shaking dust off the feet was a recognized gesture. Jews returning from Gentile territory shook off its dust at the border. Directed at a town of their own people, the act publicly declared that the messengers had done their part and what followed was the town's own affair.

9:6

"Gospel" is an old English word for good news. The Greek behind it was used of a public announcement of good tidings, such as news of a victory or of a ruler's accession.

9:7

A tetrarch was literally the ruler of a fourth part. This is Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great, who governed Galilee and Perea under Roman oversight. He held no royal title, though people commonly called him king.

9:8

"Elias" is the Greek spelling of the Hebrew name Elijah, the prophet who was carried off alive rather than dying. The last of the Hebrew prophetic books promised he would come again before the day of the Lord, so his return was a live expectation in the period.

9:9

Luke has already reported that Herod shut John up in prison for publicly condemning his marriage to his brother's wife. The execution itself Luke passes over in this one line from Herod's own mouth.

9:10

A "desert place" in the King James Version is not sand but open, unfarmed country away from settlements. Bethsaida was a fishing town at the north end of the Sea of Galilee.

9:12

"Victuals" means food supplies, and "lodge" means find somewhere to spend the night. Ordinary villages had no inns, so travelers depended on households taking them in.

9:13

In the King James Version "meat" means food of any kind, not flesh in particular. The loaves would be flat round cakes of bread, torn rather than sliced.

9:14

The figure counts men. Ancient headcounts routinely numbered adult males only, so the crowd including women and children would have been larger than five thousand.

9:16

The blessing spoken at a Jewish meal was addressed to God rather than to the food: the head of the table thanked God for providing bread. Breaking the loaf by hand was simply how a meal began, since flat loaves were torn apart and shared.

9:17

The word used here for basket refers to the stiff wicker container a traveler carried his own provisions in, a personal item rather than a large hamper.

9:19

John the Baptist preached in the desert and baptized people in the Jordan River. Herod had put him to death not long before.

9:20

"Christ" is not a name but the Greek word for "anointed one", translating the Hebrew title Messiah. Kings and priests were anointed with oil when they took office, and by this period the title was used of the deliverer God was expected to send.

9:21

"Straitly charged" means sternly ordered. "Straitly" comes from "strait", meaning tight or strict, and has no connection with "straight".

9:22

"The Son of man" renders a phrase that in Aramaic can mean simply "a human being", can serve as an indirect way of saying "I", and also names the figure in Daniel 7 who is given everlasting dominion. All of these senses were available to the first hearers, and the Gospels do not settle which is meant. The elders, chief priests and scribes were the three groups that made up the Sanhedrin, the ruling council in Jerusalem; scribes were professional experts in the law of Moses.

9:23

Crucifixion was a Roman method of execution, and a condemned man was made to carry the crossbeam through public streets to the place where he would die. "Take up his cross" called up that picture: a man already under sentence, walking out to his death, with the public shame that went with it.

9:25

"Advantaged" means profited. The verse is built out of commercial vocabulary throughout: gain, profit, and loss. "Cast away" translates a word for suffering forfeit, as of money paid out in a penalty.

9:26

Glory here means a bright shining that shows how great someone is. Angels are God's messengers.

9:27

"Taste of death" is a Semitic turn of phrase meaning simply to die.

9:28

"About an eight days after" is the King James Version's way of saying about a week later. Ancient reckoning counted both the first and the last day, so an interval described as eight days in one account and six in another can cover the same stretch of time.

9:29

"The fashion of his countenance" means the appearance of his face. "Raiment" is clothing, and "glistering" is an older word for flashing or gleaming, unrelated to being wet.

9:30

Moses was the figure through whom the law was given at Sinai; Elijah was the prophet of the northern kingdom. The end of each man was unusual in the Hebrew scriptures: no one knew where Moses was buried, and Elijah was carried off alive.

9:31

The King James "decease" means death, but the Greek word is exodos, a going out or departure, the same word used of Israel's departure from Egypt. Both the sense of dying and the sense of setting out are present, and the rendering keeps the wider word.

9:33

"Tabernacles" here means tents or booths: temporary shelters put together from branches, of the kind Israelites built and lived in during the autumn Feast of Tabernacles.

9:34

A cloud covering or overshadowing people is the language the Hebrew scriptures use when God's presence settles on Sinai or fills the tent of meeting. The wording would have carried that association for Luke's first readers.

9:35

Manuscripts differ at this point. Some read "my beloved Son", as the King James Version has it; others read "my Son, my Chosen One". Many modern translations follow the second.

9:36

"They kept it close" means they kept it secret. "Close" here has the sense of shut up or closed off, not nearby.

9:39

"Hardly" in the King James Version means with difficulty rather than rarely, so "bruising him hardly departeth from him" says the spirit mauls the boy and leaves him only after a struggle. The Greek can also be read as "rarely leaves him", and translators divide between the two.

9:41

"Suffer you" means bear with you or put up with you; in the King James Version "suffer" regularly means allow or endure. "Perverse" means twisted or turned out of the straight way, from the same root as "reverse".

9:42

"Tare" is the old past tense of "tear", used here of a convulsion throwing the body about. "Unclean" is a ritual category rather than a matter of dirt: an unclean spirit is one that renders a person unfit to come near what is holy.

9:44

"Delivered into the hands of men" translates a verb meaning to hand over, the ordinary word for surrendering a prisoner to authorities. It is also the word the Gospels use for betrayal, and the phrase leaves open who does the handing over.

9:46

"A reasoning" here means a dispute or an argument, not calm reflection.

9:47

A child in that society had no standing: no legal rights, no property, and no honor to lend an adult who paid attention to one. That is the point of the object chosen, and it depends on the child's low status rather than on innocence.

9:48

"Receive" means to welcome as a guest into your house. To welcome someone "in my name" was to welcome that person as Jesus' representative; in the practice of the time an envoy carried the standing of the one who sent him, so how you treated the messenger counted as how you treated the sender.

9:49

Driving out spirits by pronouncing a powerful name was standard practice among exorcists of the period, who invoked names they held to carry authority. The man is using Jesus' name in that customary way, without being one of his followers.

9:50

Manuscripts vary between "he that is not against us is for us" and "whoever is not against you is for you". The force of the saying is the same either way.

9:51

"Received up" means taken up and away from his followers. "He stedfastly set his face" is a Hebrew idiom, used of the prophets, for turning resolutely toward a place or a task with no intention of being deflected.

9:52

Samaritans lived in the region between Galilee and Judea. They kept their own version of the law of Moses and held that God was to be worshiped at Mount Gerizim rather than at the temple in Jerusalem, and Jews and Samaritans regarded each other with long standing hostility. Galilean pilgrims heading south often took the road straight through Samaria, which meant asking hospitality from people who rejected their destination.

9:53

"His face was as though he would go to Jerusalem" means it was plain where he was headed. He was visibly a pilgrim bound for the rival sanctuary, which is why the village would not take him in.

9:54

The reference is to 2 Kings 1, where fire from heaven consumed the soldiers sent to arrest Elijah. The words "even as Elias did" are missing from the earliest manuscripts and many modern translations omit them.

9:55

The clause "and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of", along with the first sentence of verse 56, is absent from the oldest manuscripts. It stands in the later copies the King James translators worked from, which is why it appears here and is dropped or footnoted in most modern versions.

9:58

Foxes and birds are not chosen for charm. The point is that even the least settled wild animals have somewhere to return to, and the man volunteering to follow is being told plainly that he will not.

9:59

Burying a father was among the most binding duties a son had, and was held to take precedence over other religious obligations. The request may mean the father has just died and the funeral is imminent, or, since a son could be expected to remain at home until his parents died, it may mean "let me wait until my father's death". The wording does not decide between them.

9:60

The saying uses "dead" twice, the second time of people who are physically alive. The jarring effect is in the Greek as well, and what exactly the first "dead" refers to has been argued over since antiquity.

9:61

In 1 Kings 19 Elisha asks Elijah for leave to kiss his father and mother goodbye before following him, and is allowed to go. A hearer who knew that story would catch the echo in this man's request.

9:62

The plow of the period was a light wooden frame with a single iron point, guided with one hand while the other held the goad for the ox. It scratched a shallow furrow and needed constant watching, so a plowman who looked over his shoulder cut a crooked line.