Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Luke 13:22-35, The narrow door, the feast, the fox and the hen
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus warns that many will find the door shut while people from east and west recline at the feast in God's kingdom. Warned that Herod wants to kill him, he calls Herod a fox and grieves over Jerusalem.
Luke 13:22-35, in every translation this tool compares.
Asked whether only a few will be saved, Jesus turns the question back on his hearers and tells them to make every effort to get in before the door is shut, when claiming to have eaten with him will not help. He warns that people from every direction will feast with Abraham and the prophets while some who expected a place are left outside. When Pharisees warn him that Herod Antipas wants him dead, he calls Herod a fox and says he will keep going to Jerusalem, then laments over the city he wanted to shelter like a hen with her chicks.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/eating-together\/","n":"Eating together","s":"Sharing a table made a bond of friendship, so who you ate with told everyone whose side you were on.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/herod-and-herodians\/","n":"Herod Antipas and the Herodians","s":"Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, ran Galilee for Rome as a tetrarch, not a king. The Herodians were his backers.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/prophets-rejected\/","n":"Prophets rejected and killed","s":"Israel's memory of prophets mocked, beaten and killed by their own people. By Jesus' day tradition had lengthened the list of martyred prophets.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/jerusalem-destroyed-ad-70\/","n":"The war with Rome and the fall of Jerusalem","s":"In AD 66 Judea rose against Rome. By AD 70 Roman armies had starved and burned Jerusalem, destroyed the temple and sacrificed to their standards where it had stood.","r":""}
Most Jews held that almost all Israel would share in salvation (Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1), though groups such as the Essenes believed they alone would be, and the later author of 4 Ezra warned that most would be lost (Keener and his notes). Who comes from the four directions is debated: Keener says the words could mean dispersed Jews coming home, but in Luke-Acts they point to Gentiles, and the cultural backgrounds notes say they presumably include Gentiles; Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary, adds that Jewish hope often pictured the nations submitting to Israel, where here they share the banquet in full. Antipas, as tetrarch, could execute whom he chose and had already killed John; Keener and his notes take these Pharisees to be trying to help, while the CSB Study Bible doubts that they meant to protect him. A fox was worthless, treacherous or cunning, and foxes prey on hens (Keener and his notes). Jewish tradition spoke of a convert brought under the wings of God's presence, so Jesus takes a divine image for himself (Keener and his notes). The desolate house is the temple destroyed in AD 70 (Keener and his notes).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 13:22-24, 13:26-27, 13:29-30, 13:31, 13:32, 13:34 and 13:35
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 13:24, 13:29, 13:31, 13:32, 13:34 and 13:35
- CSB Study Bible, note on Luke 13:31-34
- Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 13:23, 13:29, 13:32 and 13:35
