| Luke 11 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Fragment ofUncial 0191, 6th century bilingual Greek-Coptic manuscript of the Gospels with text of Luke 11:51–12:5 | |
| Book | Gospel of Luke |
| Category | Gospel |
| Christian Bible part | New Testament |
| Order in the Christian part | 3 |
Luke 11 is the eleventh chapter of theGospel of Luke in theNew Testament of theChristianBible. It recordsLuke's version of theLord's Prayer and severalparables and teachings told byJesusChrist.[1] The book containing this chapter isanonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed thatLuke the Evangelist composed thisGospel as well as theActs of the Apostles.[2]
The original text was written inKoine Greek. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
This chapter isdivided into 54 verses.
The chapter opens with Jesus praying in "a certain place" and being asked by one of hisdisciples to teach them to pray, asJohn 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, inLuke 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]Origen emphasizes that the disciple's request is for Jesus to teach "as John taught", John having already been commended by Jesus as the greatest of all those born of women.[5][6]
In reply, Jesus taught his disciples the "model prayer",[7] known generally as theLord'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 theSermon on the Mount.[8] Eric Franklin notes the "appropriate" connection between this section and the end ofchapter 10, whereMary's listening to Jesus has been commended rather thanMartha's activism.[9]: 942
For Luke, the Lord's Prayer has a stronglyeschatological focus: it prays for the coming of theKingdom 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 aparable 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".[9]: 943
Farrar adds anallegorical 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]
The text here:
mirrors Luke's text at6:38:
God's responsiveness to persistentprayer 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:
Luke gives three examples of possible requests, two matching Matthew's account, asking for a loaf, and for a fish,[14] and a third of his own, requesting anegg. Codex Bezae omits the first example.[15] Meyer sees in this passage an example of the literary technique known asanacoluthon, an unexpected discontinuity in the expression of ideas.[8]
Luke 11:23b, alsoMatthew 12:30.
Baptist theologianJohn Gill suggests that "the allusion [in verse 23b] is either to the gathering of the sheep into thefold, 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".[16]
These verses appear in Luke only, but they have affinities withMatthew 12:46-50 andMark 3:32-35, where his own mother and brothers intervene during Jesus' discourse.[15]Henry Alford comments that "the woman apparently was influenced by nothing but common-place and unintelligent wonder at the sayings and doings of Jesus".[18]
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Verses 37–54 enumerate a number of criticisms raised byJesus againstscribes (lawyers) andPharisees, which are also recorded inMatthew 23:1–39.[19]Mark 12:35–40 andLuke 20:45–47 also include warnings about scribes.
| Preceded by Luke 10 | Chapters of the Bible Gospel of Luke | Succeeded by Luke 12 |