Bible Commentary / New Testament
Luke
Luke presents Jesus as the promised Messiah, the Son of God, the Spirit-anointed Savior, and the universal Lord whose saving work reaches Israel first and then extends to all nations. Luke’s stated purpose is to provide an orderly account that gives certainty concerning the things taught about Jesus. The Gospel theref…
Literary units
Luke 1:1 - Luke 1:4
Theophilus addressed; purpose and introduction
Luke begins by noting that many have already written accounts drawn from those who saw the events and became servants of the word. He adds his own work to that stream, claiming careful investigation from the beginning and a deliberate arra…
Luke 1:5 - Luke 1:25
Zechariah and Elizabeth; birth announcement of John the Baptist
Luke begins his narrative proper by locating events in Herod's reign and within the Jerusalem temple, introducing a righteous priestly couple whose barrenness and old age create the humanly impossible setting for divine intervention. Durin…
Luke 1:26 - Luke 1:56
Mary's annunciation and visit to Elizabeth
Luke sets Gabriel's announcement to Mary alongside the earlier annunciation to Zechariah, but the focus now rises from the forerunner to the Messiah. Jesus is announced as the Davidic heir whose reign will not end, and his conception is at…
Luke 1:57 - Luke 1:80
The song of Mary (Magnificat)
Luke recounts John's birth, the dispute over his name, Zechariah's restored speech, and the prophecy that follows. The naming scene confirms that the angel's word outranks family custom, and Zechariah's praise quickly shifts attention from…
Luke 1:57 - Luke 1:80
Birth and naming of John; Zechariah's prophecy
Luke closes the birth scene by showing that John's God-given name is received, not negotiated, and that Zechariah's restored speech becomes Spirit-inspired praise. The sequence runs from Elizabeth's delivery, to the public astonishment sur…
Luke 2:1 - Luke 2:7
Birth of Jesus announced to Joseph (genealogy note leads into narrative) - infancy summary
Luke places Jesus' birth within an imperial registration that brings Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Joseph's Davidic descent explains the move to David's city, so the setting is not incidental. Yet when the birth itself comes,…
Luke 2:8 - Luke 2:24
Shepherds and the manger; presentation in the temple
Luke shifts from the birth itself to heaven's announcement of what that birth means. In David's city, the child in the manger is named Savior, Messiah, and Lord; the sign joins royal identity to visible lowliness. The shepherds hear, go, f…
Luke 2:25 - Luke 2:40
Simeon and Anna; return to Nazareth
Luke presents Simeon and Anna as faithful Israelites whose Spirit-shaped testimony identifies the infant Jesus as the fulfillment of God's saving promise. Simeon blesses God because he has seen the salvation God prepared before all peoples…
Luke 2:41 - Luke 2:52
Childhood at Nazareth; boy Jesus in the temple
Luke gives his only canonical scene from Jesus' years between infancy and public ministry. The family is shown making the customary Passover pilgrimage, and the tension begins when Jesus remains in Jerusalem and is later found in the templ…
Luke 3:1 - Luke 3:20
John the Baptist begins preaching; call to repentance
Luke opens John’s ministry by fixing it in public history and by presenting it as the arrival of God’s prophetic word in the wilderness rather than in the Jerusalem establishment. John’s preaching calls Israel to a repentance that must be…
Luke 3:21 - Luke 3:38
Baptism of Jesus and genealogy(Luke's genealogy)
Luke pairs Jesus' baptism with the genealogy to define him at the outset of ministry. At the Jordan, Jesus stands with the baptized people, prays, receives the Spirit in visible form, and hears the Father's declaration, 'You are my beloved…
Luke 4:1 - Luke 4:13
The temptation of Jesus
After the baptismal voice names Jesus as God's Son and the genealogy reaches back to Adam, Luke places him in the wilderness under Spirit-led testing. Across three temptations centered on hunger, rule, and protection, Jesus answers from De…
Luke 4:14 - Luke 4:30
Jesus begins ministry in Galilee; teaching in Nazareth and rejection
Luke presents Jesus' Galilean ministry as Spirit-empowered and initially well received, then focuses on the synagogue scene in Nazareth as a programmatic episode. By reading Isaiah and declaring its fulfillment
Luke 4:31 - Luke 4:44
Ministry in Capernaum and many healings
After the violence at Nazareth, Jesus arrives in Capernaum and immediately displays the authority of his word. In the synagogue he teaches with force, silences an unclean demon that names him, and drives it out without struggle. In Simon's…
Luke 5:1 - Luke 6:16
Crowds, healings, and teaching; cleansings and calling of disciples
Crowds press in to hear Jesus teach, but Luke ties the teaching to acts that reveal who he is. Jesus directs Simon’s catch and turns it into a call, touches and cleanses a leper, pronounces forgiveness over a paralytic and proves that auth…
Luke 6:17 - Luke 6:49
Sermon on the Plain (beatitudes, ethics, love for enemies)
On the level place, after healing a crowd drawn from Judea and the coast of Tyre and Sidon, Jesus turns to his disciples and names the poor, hungry, weeping, and persecuted as blessed, while pronouncing woe on the rich, satisfied, laughing…
Luke 7:1 - Luke 7:35
Healing and controversies; miracles and disputes over Sabbath
After the Sermon on the Plain, Luke shows Jesus' authority in action. A centurion trusts that a spoken command is enough to heal at a distance; at Nain Jesus interrupts a funeral and gives a widow her son back; to John's question he points…
Luke 7:18 - Luke 7:50
John the Baptist's question; woman who anointed Jesus
Jesus answers John’s question by pointing to deeds that match prophetic hope: the blind see, the lame walk, the dead are raised, and the poor hear good news. He then honors John as the promised forerunner while exposing a generation that r…
Luke 8:1 - Luke 8:21
Crowds and kingdom teaching; parable of great banquet begins transition
Luke presents Jesus traveling through towns proclaiming the kingdom, accompanied not only by the Twelve but also by women who have been healed and now materially support the mission. Against the backdrop of growing crowds, Jesus explains w…
Luke 8:4 - Luke 8:21
Parables of the sower and explanation; other parables and miracles
Jesus explains that the varied outcomes of his kingdom message arise not from any weakness in the word but from the way it is received. The sower, the lamp saying, and the scene with his mother and brothers all turn on the same criterion:…
Luke 8:22 - Luke 8:39
Jesus calms the storm; healing the Gerasene demoniac
Luke joins the lake crossing and the Gerasene exorcism to answer the disciples' question in 8:25. Jesus stills a lethal storm with a rebuke, then on the far shore subdues a host of demons who immediately recognize his rank. The two scenes…
Luke 8:40 - Luke 8:56
Jairus' daughter and the woman with the flow of blood
Luke interweaves Jairus's plea for his dying daughter with the healing of a woman who has bled for twelve years, so that the interruption interprets the crisis it delays. In both scenes, desperate need meets Jesus's authority under public…
Luke 9:1 - Luke 9:17
Sending out the twelve; opposition and growing popularity
Jesus sends the Twelve with delegated power over demons and diseases so that they proclaim God's kingdom and heal in his name. Their mission spreads Jesus' fame far enough to trouble Herod, whose confusion about Jesus' identity introduces…
Luke 9:18 - Luke 9:27
Peter's confession; first prediction of suffering
This unit marks a decisive turning point in Luke. After public speculation about Jesus' identity, Peter rightly confesses him as "the Christ of God," but Jesus immediately redefines messiahship through the suffering destiny of the Son of M…
Luke 9:28 - Luke 9:36
The Transfiguration
Luke presents the transfiguration as a revelatory event that follows Peter’s confession, Jesus’ passion prediction, and the promise that some would see the kingdom of God. While Jesus is praying, his appearance changes, Moses and Elijah ap…
Luke 9:37 - Luke 9:62
Teachings on discipleship (cost of following; mission teachings)
After the transfiguration, Jesus comes down to a failed exorcism, restores a demon-tormented only son, and then tells his disciples that the Son of Man will be handed over. Luke sets that prediction beside a string of disciple misfires: th…
Luke 10:1 - Luke 10:24
Sermon on the Plain / teachings on greatness and hospitality (extended material)
Jesus appoints seventy-two others and sends them ahead of him as heralds of the kingdom. Their instructions combine urgency, dependence, hospitality, healing, and warning: where they are received, peace rests; where they are refused, the k…
Luke 10:25 - Luke 11:13
Good Samaritan parable and teaching on prayer
This unit places three scenes side by side: the lawyer and the Samaritan, Martha and Mary, and Jesus' teaching on prayer. In the first, Jesus turns a self-justifying question about the limits of neighbor-love into a demand for costly mercy…
Luke 11:1 - Luke 11:36
Teachings on prayer, Beelzebul controversy, and sign of Jonah
Luke 11:1-36 gathers several scenes into one sustained call to rightly respond to Jesus and the kingdom of God. Jesus teaches his disciples to pray as children dependent on the Father, defends his exorcisms as evidence that God's kingdom h…
Luke 11:37 - Luke 12:3
Clean and unclean, wood and building, woe to unrepentant cities
At a Pharisee's table, Jesus turns shock over omitted handwashing into a direct indictment of religious distortion. The Pharisees clean the outside while greed and wickedness fill the inside; they tithe herbs yet neglect justice and the lo…
Luke 12:1 - Luke 12:34
Teachings on hypocrisy, watchfulness, and stewardship
Jesus addresses his disciples in a charged public moment and ties together three dangers: Pharisaic hypocrisy, fear of hostile people, and the illusion that possessions can secure life. Hidden things will be exposed, so they must fear God…
Luke 12:35 - Luke 13:9
Warnings and encouragements about anxiety and readiness
Jesus turns the call to seek the kingdom into a set of urgent warnings: servants must stay dressed and awake for an unexpected master, stewards must keep feeding the household rather than exploiting delay, and the crowds must read the pres…
Luke 13:1 - Luke 13:21
Call to repentance; parables of the mustard seed and leaven; healing on the Sabbath
Jesus refuses the idea that the Galileans killed by Pilate or those crushed at Siloam must have been worse sinners than others. Instead, both events become a warning to the living: unless they repent, they too face ruin. The fig-tree parab…
Luke 13:22 - Luke 14:24
Parable of the great banquet and teaching on the narrow door
On the road to Jerusalem, Jesus turns a question about how many will be saved into a warning to enter through the narrow door before it is shut. Those who appeal to having seen and heard him are still turned away, while others come from ev…
Luke 14:1 - Luke 14:35
Humility and hospitality teachings; cost of discipleship repeated
At a Sabbath meal in a leading Pharisee's house, Jesus turns the table against the table's own social logic. He heals a man in need and exposes a Sabbath practice that makes room for rescuing one's own son or animal but not for open mercy.…
Luke 15:1 - Luke 15:32
Teachings on readiness; parables of the lost sheep and lost coin
Luke 15 answers the complaint that Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them. The lost sheep and lost coin defend the search for the lost and the joy that follows their recovery. The parable of the father and two sons sharpens the issue fu…
Luke 15:11 - Luke 16:31
Parable of the prodigal son
This span combines two adjacent but distinct discourse settings: Luke 15:11-32 completes Jesus' response to Pharisaic grumbling with the parable of the two sons, and Luke 16:1-31 turns first to disciples, then to Pharisees, on the use of w…
Luke 16:1 - Luke 16:31
Teaching on stewardship and the rich man and Lazarus
Luke 16 binds the shrewd manager, the Pharisees' ridicule, and the rich man with Lazarus into one warning about wealth and the heart. The manager is not praised for fraud but for acting with foresight under impending reckoning; Jesus redir…
Luke 17:1 - Luke 17:10
Teachings on divorce, children, and the kingdom
Jesus gives his disciples a compact sequence of commands for life together: do not become the source of another disciple's fall, rebuke sin, forgive repeated repentance, trust God rather than waiting for larger reserves of faith, and serve…
Luke 17:11 - Luke 17:37
Faith and the coming of the kingdom; ten lepers healed
Luke places the Samaritan's return and Jesus' kingdom teaching side by side to show two related truths: God's reign is already present in Jesus, and its final unveiling still lies ahead. Of the ten lepers cleansed on the way to the priests…
Luke 18:1 - Luke 18:30
Teachings on preparedness and the coming of the Son of Man
Luke 18:1-30 presents four scenes that answer how people are to live while awaiting God's vindication and entering his kingdom. Jesus commends prayer that does not collapse under delay, a plea for mercy that abandons self-approval, recepti…
Luke 18:18 - Luke 18:30
The rich young ruler; teachings on wealth and rewards
A ruler asks how to inherit eternal life, but Jesus moves from commandments the man can claim to the surrender he will not make: selling his possessions, giving to the poor, and following Jesus. The ruler's grief shows that wealth governs…
Luke 18:31 - Luke 19:44
Bartimaeus healed; triumphal entry into Jerusalem
This unit gathers Jesus' final approach to Jerusalem into a tightly connected sequence: a passion prediction the disciples fail to understand, two Jericho episodes that display true recognition and saving response, a corrective parable abo…
Luke 19:45 - Luke 19:48
Cleansing of the temple and teaching; Zacchaeus
After lamenting Jerusalem’s failure to recognize God’s visitation, Jesus enters the temple courts and begins expelling sellers. He explains the act with Isaiah and Jeremiah: the temple is meant to be God’s house of prayer, yet it has becom…
Luke 20:1 - Luke 20:47
Parable of the tenants and controversies with the leaders
In the temple, Jesus faces a sequence of public challenges that expose the real fault line: the leaders who would not acknowledge John also refuse the Son. Their evasive answer about John sets the tone, the tenants parable names their hist…
Luke 21:1 - Luke 21:38
Olive discourse - signs of the end and watchfulness
Luke 21 begins with a widow who gives her whole livelihood and moves immediately to Jesus’ announcement that the temple itself will be torn down. In response to the disciples’ question, Jesus distinguishes preliminary upheavals from the ap…
Luke 22:1 - Luke 22:6
The plot to kill Jesus; anointing at Bethany; Judas conspires
Luke begins the passion sequence by moving from hostile intent to workable conspiracy. With Passover near, the chief priests and scribes want Jesus dead but cannot act openly because they fear the crowd. That obstacle is removed when Satan…
Luke 22:7 - Luke 22:46
The Last Supper; Gethsemane
Luke frames the Passover meal and the Mount of Olives prayer as Jesus’ deliberate movement into appointed suffering. At table He recasts Passover around His body given and His blood of the new covenant, announces betrayal, answers the disc…
Luke 22:47 - Luke 22:71
Arrest, trials, and Peter's denial
This unit narrates Jesus' arrest, Peter's threefold denial, the abuse Jesus endures, and the Jewish council's examination. Luke highlights Jesus' composure and authority throughout: he exposes Judas' betrayal, stops violent resistance, hea…
Luke 23:1 - Luke 23:49
Jesus before Pilate; crucifixion and death
Luke moves Jesus from the council's accusations to Roman execution while tightening two themes: he is repeatedly judged innocent, and he is repeatedly identified as king. Pilate and Herod cannot substantiate the case, yet the crowd secures…
Luke 23:50 - Luke 23:56
Burial of Jesus
Luke presents Jesus’ burial with named actors, official permission, a specific tomb, and observing witnesses. Joseph of Arimathea, a council member who did not join the verdict against Jesus, gives him honorable burial in an unused rock-cu…
Luke 24:1 - Luke 24:35
The resurrection and road to Emmaus
Luke narrates the empty tomb and the Emmaus road so that the resurrection is seen not as an unexplained marvel but as the event that fulfills Jesus' own words and the scriptural pattern of suffering followed by glory. The scene moves from…
Luke 24:36 - Luke 24:53
Jesu's appearances and ascension
This closing Lukan unit confirms the bodily reality of Jesus' resurrection, interprets that resurrection through the Scriptures, commissions the disciples as witnesses, and transitions the Gospel toward Acts through the promise of the Fath…