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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 14:1-14, Dropsy at a Pharisee's table, and guests who cannot repay
On a Sabbath at the house of a leading Pharisee, Jesus heals a man with dropsy, tells the guests not to grab the best places, and tells the host to invite people who cannot invite him back.
Luke 14:1-14, in every translation this tool compares.
Jesus eats at the home of a leading Pharisee on the Sabbath while the guests watch him for a slip. He heals a man with severe swelling and asks which of them would not rescue a child or an ox from a well on that day. Noticing the guests jostling for the best places, he advises taking the lowest seat, and tells his host to invite people who can never return the favor, since God will reward him when the righteous are raised.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/resurrection-of-the-dead\/","n":"The resurrection of the dead","s":"Most Jews, with the Pharisees, expected God to raise the dead to bodily life at the end of the age. The Sadducees denied it. Nobody expected one man to rise ahead of everyone else.","r":""}
It was an honor to host a famous teacher, and Jews thought it especially virtuous to invite one to a Sabbath meal (Keener and his notes). Dropsy, swelling from fluid, was a symptom of a more serious illness, and it is unclear whether the man was a guest, a plant or an onlooker (Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary). The Essenes would not rescue an animal on the Sabbath, but Pharisees and most others would, so Jesus argues from a rule his hosts already accepted (Keener and his notes); the Damascus Document lets a person be rescued from a pit only without a ladder or rope (Strauss). Seating by rank is well attested in Jewish Palestine, and Jesus' advice is Proverbs 25:6-7, already well known if not always followed (Keener and his notes). People of status invited those somewhat below them, such as clients, in return for honor, but never beggars or the destitute, and the crippled, lame and blind were barred from the Qumran community (Keener and his notes). Judaism taught that the righteous would be rewarded at the resurrection, and Proverbs 19:17 already says God repays kindness to the poor (Keener).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 14:1, 14:3-6, 14:7, 14:8-10, 14:12, 14:13 and 14:14
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 14:1, 14:5, 14:7, 14:10 and 14:12
- Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 14:2, 14:5, 14:8, 14:12-13 and 14:14 and sidebar Banquets, Meals, and Social Status
