Luke 14 is the fourteenth chapter of the

Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Together with the Acts of the Apostles, it makes up a two-vol ...

in the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

of the Christian

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

. It records one miracle performed by

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

on a Sabbath day, followed by His teachings and

parables A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, ...

.Halley, Henry H. ''Halley's Bible Handbook'': an Abbreviated Bible Commentary. 23rd edition. Zondervan Publishing House. 1962. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that

Luke the Evangelist Luke the Evangelist (Latin: '' Lucas''; grc, Λουκᾶς, '' Loukâs''; he, לוקאס, ''Lūqās''; arc, /ܠܘܩܐ לוקא, ''Lūqā’; Ge'ez: ሉቃስ'') is one of the Four Evangelists—the four traditionally ascribed authors of t ...

composed this

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

as well as the Acts of the Apostles.Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012.

Text

The original text was written in

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

. This chapter is divided into 35 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are: *

Papyrus 75 Papyrus 75 (formerly Papyrus Bodmer XIV– XV, now Hanna Papyrus 1), designated by the siglum (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is an early Greek New Testament manuscript written on papyrus. It contains text from ...

(AD 175-225; verse 27 contains a staurogram) *

Papyrus 45 Papyrus 45 (''P. Chester Beatty'' I), designated by siglum (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is an early Greek New Testament manuscript written on papyrus, and is one of the manuscripts comprising the Chester Beatt ...

(~250) *

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

(325-350) *

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus ( Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscript ...

(330-360) *

Codex Bezae The Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis, designated by siglum D or 05 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 5 (in the von Soden of New Testament manuscript), is a codex of the New Testament dating from the 5th century writ ...

(~400) *

Codex Washingtonianus The Codex Washingtonianus or Codex Washingtonensis, designated by W or 032 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 014 ( Soden), also called the ''Washington Manuscript of the Gospels'', and ''The Freer Gospel'', contains the four biblical gospels an ...

(~400) *

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

(400-440) * Papyrus 97 (~600; extant verses 7-14).

Jesus being carefully watched

The chapter opens on a

Sabbath day In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as G ...

, when Jesus has been invited into the home of one of the rulers of the Pharisees, presumably directly after the synagogue service. He is 'watched carefully' or 'craftily'. Bengel, J. A.
Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament
on Luke 14, accessed 1 August 2020 F. W. Farrar in the

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges is a biblical commentary set published in parts by Cambridge University Press from 1882 onwards. Anglican bishop John Perowne was the general editor. The first section published was written by theologi ...

notes a resonance with the words of : :''The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to slay him''. A man with dropsy (swellings caused by bodily fluids, also called edema) is there.

Verses 3-6

:''And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Nothing had been said; Jesus responds to the ''thoughts'' of his adversaries. He heals the man, and lets him go (or sends him away). A further dialogue follows: :''"Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well, will not immediately pull him out on a sabbath day?" :''And they could not reply to this.'' Some manuscripts, in place of "a son", refer to a donkey.

Take the Lowly Place

This

pericope A pericope (; Greek , "a cutting-out") in rhetoric is a set of verses that forms one coherent unit or thought, suitable for public reading from a text, now usually of sacred scripture. Also can be used as a way to identify certain themes in a cha ...

(verses 7 to 14), also known as the Parable of the Wedding Feast, is one of the

parables of Jesus The parables of Jesus are found in the Synoptic Gospels and some of the non-canonical gospels. They form approximately one third of his recorded teachings. Christians place great emphasis on these parables, which they generally regard as the wo ...

which is only found in the

in the

and directly precedes the

Parable of the Great Banquet The Parable of the Great Banquet or the Wedding Feast or the Marriage of the King's Son is a parable told by Jesus in the New Testament, found in and . It is not to be confused with a different Parable of the Wedding Feast recorded in Luke's G ...

in .''Luke'' by Sharon H. Ringe 1995 page 195 In Matthew's Gospel, the parallel passage to Luke's Parable of the Great Banquet is also set as a wedding feast ( Matthew 22:1-14). Jesus always made his parables relatable to the

layman In religious organizations, the laity () consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious orders, e.g. a nun or a lay brother. In both religious and wider secular usage, a layper ...

. A wedding, in the days of the Jews, was a very sacred and joyous thing. Some even lasted up to or more than a week. When Jesus told this parable, many people were able to understand the picture he was trying to create because he used a

Jewish wedding A Jewish wedding is a wedding ceremony that follows Jewish laws and traditions. While wedding ceremonies vary, common features of a Jewish wedding include a ''ketubah'' (marriage contract) which is signed by two witnesses, a ''chuppah'' or ''hu ...

as the setting of the story. Luke's saying that "Every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" is also found in and . It is similar to Matthew 18:4. David Brown notes that this parable includes "a reproduction" of Proverbs 25:6–7.

Parable of the Great Supper

The Parable of the Great Banquet or the Wedding Feast or the Marriage of the King's Son (verses 16-24) is also found in Matthew . A variant of the parable also appears in Saying 64 of the Gnostic

Gospel of Thomas The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is an extra-canonical sayings gospel. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars speculate ...

. Many guests are invited to the banquet, but they "all alike" offered excuses, of which three examples are given. The

eschatological Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that nega ...

image of a

wedding A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...

also occurs in the

parable of the Faithful Servant The Parable of the Faithful Servant (or Parable of the Door Keeper) is a parable of Jesus found in Matthew 24:42-51, Mark 13:34-37, and Luke 12:35-48 about how it is important for the faithful to keep watch. In Matthew's Gospel, it immediately ...

and the

parable of the Ten Virgins The Parable of the Ten Virgins, also known as the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins or the Parable of the ten bridesmaids, is one of the parables of Jesus. According to , ten virgins await a bridegroom; five have brought enough oil f ...

. Here, it includes the extension of the original invitation (to

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

) to also include Gentiles.Robert H. Stein,
An Introduction to the Parables of Jesus
', Westminster John Knox Press, 1981, , pp. 82-91. In Luke, the invitation is extended particularly to "the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame" (), evidencing explicit concern for the "poor and the outcasts".

Leaving All to Follow Christ

Counting the Cost, or in the

NIV Niv may refer to: * Niv, a personal name; for people with the name, see * Niv Art Movies, a film production company of India * Niv Art Centre, in New Delhi, India NIV may refer to: * The New International Version, a translation of the Bible into ...

: The Cost of Being a Disciple or in the

NRSV The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1989 by the National Council of Churches.NKJV The New King James Version (NKJV) is an English translation of the Bible. The complete NKJV Bible was published in 1982 by Thomas Nelson, now HarperCollins. The NKJV is described by Thomas Nelson as being "scrupulously faithful to the origin ...

: Leaving All to Follow Christ, are titles given to verses 25-33 in this chapter, which include a pair of illustrations of the importance of deliberating in advance "whether they were able and prepared to bear all their losses and persecutions to which the profession of the gospel would expose them".Benson, J.
Benson Commentary
on Luke 14, accessed 2 August 2020 The first title comes from the phrase "count the cost", which occurs in the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

of the passage, as well as some other versions. Eric Franklin argues that the requirement to "hate" in verse 26 is " Semitic exaggeration", and

Joseph Benson Joseph Benson (26 January 1749 – 16 February 1821) was an early English Methodist minister, one of the leaders of the movement during the time of Methodism's founder John Wesley. Life The son of John Benson and Isabella Robinson, his wife, he ...

envisages that hatred "signifies only an inferior degree of love". American New Testament scholar Joel B. Green suggests that it is unclear what kind of tower is being referred to in the first illustration, Joel B. Green,
The Gospel of Luke
', Eerdmans, 1997, , pp. 566-567. but notes that the message is that a "thoroughgoing fidelity to God's

salvific Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its ...

aim" is required, "manifest in one's identity as a disciple of Jesus". This involves putting family and possessions second,Charles McCollough,
The Art of Parables: Reinterpreting the Teaching Stories of Jesus in Word and Scripture
', Wood Lake Publishing, 2008, , pp. 94-95. as in Matthew 8:18– 22 and . This command is interpreted and practised in different ways by different Christians. Some groups, such as the Bruderhof or

Hutterite Hutterites (german: link=no, Hutterer), also called Hutterian Brethren (German: ), are a communal ethnoreligious branch of Anabaptists, who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the early 16th century ...

s see it as a call to forsake all possessions to follow Jesus. Others read it simply as a matter of having Christ be the center of one's heart.

Salt

Salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

is 'good' in biblical thought for giving taste where there is none (: ''Can flavorless food be eaten without salt?'') and for preserving what otherwise would perish ().Franklin, E., ''Luke'' in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001)
The Oxford Bible Commentary
p. 947

References

External links

* King James Bible - Wikisource
English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
(ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
Multiple bible versions at ''Bible Gateway''
(NKJV, NIV, NRSV etc.) {{Gospel of Luke Gospel of Luke chapters