Thursday 21 July 2011

Luke 19:11

This verse occurs between the story of Zachaeus and the parable of the ten minas (the servants entrusted with varying amounts of money). Luke uses it as a link between the celebration of Zachaeus receiving salvation and the unknown that is waiting in Jerusalem.
Ἀκουοντων δε αὐτων ταυτα προσθεις εἰπε παραβολην, δια το ἐγγυς αὐτον εἰναι Ἱερουσαλημ και δοκειν αὐτους ὁτι παραχρημα μελλει ἡ βασιλεια του Θεου ἀναφαινεσθαι.

Ἀκουοντοων - participle in the genitive case, while listening
δε - connecting word, can be translated 'and' or left out.Timid word - should be at the start of the sentence.
αὐτων - they genitive case. This construction with a genitive participle and then a genitive noun is called the 'genitive absolute' and provides a sort of background to the rest of the sentence. While they were listening,
ταυτα - demonstrative pronoun these. The following noun is omitted. Because the case is neuter and it is plural, the assumption is that it means these things.

So far - While they were listening to these things,

προσθεις - present participle adding
εἰπε - he said
παραβολην - a parable
δια - because
το - the (this starts a form known as the articular infinitive)
ἐγγυς - close (near)
αὐτον - he in accusative case because it is the subject of the infinitive verb coming up
εἰναι -to be the awaited infinitive and end of the articular infinitive form. 'His being close to'
Ἱερουσαλημ - Jerusalem.  There are various forms of this name in Greek.
και - and
δοκειν - to think here is another infinitive. There is no article this time, so I suppose it is not a true articular infinitive, but the sense is the same. I think the use of the two infinitives shows the intention to include them equally as foundations for the 'because' we had earlier.
αὐτους - they accusative case because it is the subject of the infinitive
ὁτι - that

this part - continuing, he told a parable because of his closeness to Jerusalem  and their thinking that

παραχρημα - immediately, suddenly
μελλει- he she or it intends  the use of this word has morphed to imply a future tense rather than agency
ἡ βασιλεια - the kingdom
του Θεου - of the God (of provided by the genitive case, the article is often used with proper nouns in Greek)
ἀναφαινεσθαι - to appear this is another infinitive, but used in a way that we are used to in English!

this part - suddenly the kingdom of God intends to appear.

So a literal translation of the whole verse:
While they were listening to these things, continuing, he told a parable because of his closeness to Jerusalem  and their thinking that suddenly the kingdom of God intends to appear.
Put into better English and attempting to preserve the equal importance of the closeness and the thinking:
While they were listening to these things, he continued and told a parable because of his closeness to Jerusalem and because of their thinking that the kingdom of God would suddenly appear.

This translation suggests to me that already (not only on Palm Sunday) there were people that thought Jesus was heading into Jerusalem to claim it as his kingdom. While he has their attention after the miraculous repentance of Zachaeus he tries to warn them that it is not time for the kingdom yet.

NIV for this verse: While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.

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