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Luke 11

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Luke 11
Fragment of Uncial 0191, 6th century bilingual Greek-Coptic manuscript of the Gospels with text of Luke 11:51-12:5
BookGospel of Luke
CategoryGospel
Christian Bible partNew Testament
Order in the Christian part3

Luke 11 is the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer and several parables and teachings told by Jesus Christ.[1] The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke the Evangelist composed this Gospel as well as the Acts of the Apostles.[2]

Text

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The original text was written in Koine Greek. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:

This chapter is divided into 54 verses.

The Lord's Prayer

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Luke 11:2 in Codex Sinaiticus.
Main article: Lord's Prayer

The chapter opens with Jesus praying in "a certain place" and being asked by one of his disciples to teach them to pray, as John the Baptist had taught his disciples.[3] The place is not named but the context is within Jesus' "journey to Jerusalem" which he has commenced, with his disciples, in Luke 9:51. Frederic Farrar suggests that Luke "did not possess a ... definite note of place or of time".[4]

The form of prayer taught by John the Baptist has perished.[4]

In reply, Jesus taught his disciples the "model prayer",[5] known generally as the Lord's Prayer. Some writers looking at Matthew's account (Matthew 6:9–13) alongside Luke's account have argued that the disciple was probably a later recruit to Jesus' entourage and therefore not present at the Sermon on the Mount.[6] Eric Franklin notes the "appropriate" connection between this section and the end of chapter 10, where Mary's listening to Jesus has been commended rather than Martha's activism.[7]: 942 

A friend comes at midnight

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Main article: Parable of the Friend at Night
And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within and say, 'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'?"[8]
Etching by Jan Luyken illustrating the parable of the friend at night, from the Bowyer Bible

For Luke, the Lord's Prayer has a strongly eschatological focus: it prays for the coming of the Kingdom of God and maintaining that until such coming, Jesus' disciples "should live under its shadow and out of its strength". So Luke follows on from the prayer with a parable which speaks of the need for urgent and insistent prayer, portrayed through "a determined petition for bread". The parable indicates that God is not indifferent during this time of waiting, and Franklin observes that any suggestion to the contrary "arises out of a misreading of the signs of the times".[7]: 943 

Farrar adds an allegorical reading in his assessment of this story:

Allegorically we may see here the unsatisfied hunger of the soul, which wakens in the midnight of a sinful life.[4]

Keep asking, seeking, knocking

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So I say to you, "Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you".[9]

The text here:

Greek: αιτειτε και δοθησεται υμιν ζητειτε και ευρησετε κρουετε και ανοιγησεται υμιν,[10] (aiteite kai dothēsetai hymin zēteite kai eurēsete krouete kai anoigēsetai hymin)

mirrors Luke's text at 6:38:

Give, and it will be given to you
(δίδοτε καὶ δοθήσεται ὑμῖν, didote kai dothēsetai hymin)

God's responsiveness to persistent prayer can be understood in the light of the parable of the friend at midnight and the persistence in seeking help which it represents.

Verses 11-12 maintain the theme of asking:

11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?[11]

Luke gives three examples of possible requests, two matching Matthew's account, asking for a loaf, and for a fish,[12] and a third of his own, requesting an egg. Codex Bezae omits the first example.[13] Meyer sees in this passage an example of the literary technique known as anacoluthon, an unexpected discontinuity in the expression of ideas.[6]

He who does not gather with me scatters

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The Latin text of Luke 10:41-11:5 in Codex Claromontanus V, from 4th or 5th century.

Luke 11:23b, also Matthew 12:30.

Baptist theologian John Gill suggests that "the allusion [in verse 23b] is either to the gathering of the sheep into the fold, and the scattering of them by the wolf; or to the gathering of the wheat, and binding it in sheaves, and bringing it home in harvest; and to the scattering of the wheat loose in the field, whereby it is lost".[14]

Woes of the Pharisees

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Main article: Woes of the Pharisees

Verses 37-54 enumerate a number of criticisms raised by Jesus against scribes (lawyers) and Pharisees, which are also recorded in Matthew 23:1–39.[15] Mark 12:35–40 and Luke 20:45–47 also include warnings about scribes.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Halley, Henry H. Halley's Bible Handbook: an Abbreviated Bible Commentary. 23rd edition. Zondervan Publishing House. 1962.
  2. ^ Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012.
  3. ^ Luke 11:1
  4. ^ a b c Farrar, F. W. (1891), Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on Luke 11, accessed 16 September 2023
  5. ^ Sub-heading at Luke 11:1 in the New King James Version
  6. ^ a b Meyer, H. A. W. (1873), Meyer's NT Commentary on Luke 11, translated from the German sixth edition, accessed 9 January 2022
  7. ^ a b Franklin, E., 58. Luke in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001), The Oxford Bible Commentary Archived 2017-11-22 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Luke 11:5–7: NKJV
  9. ^ Luke 11:9: NKJV
  10. ^ Luke 11:9: Westcott-Hort New Testament
  11. ^ Luke 11:11–12: NKJV
  12. ^ Matthew 7:9–10
  13. ^ Nicoll, W. R., The Expositor's Greek Testament on Luke 11, accessed 21 September 2023
  14. ^ Gill, J. (1746–48), Gill's Exposition on Luke 11, accessed 17 June 2018
  15. ^ Kupfer, Marcia Ann, ed. (2008). The Passion Story: From Visual Representation to Social Drama. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 223–224. ISBN 978-0-271-03307-5. OCLC 180190788.
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Preceded by
Luke 10 		Chapters of the Bible
Gospel of Luke 		Succeeded by
Luke 12
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