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Luke 6 General Notes
Structure and formatting
Luke 6:20-49 contains many blessings and woes that appear to correspond to Matthew 5-7. This part of Matthew has traditionally been called the "Sermon on the Mount." In Luke, they are not as connected to a teaching on the kingdom of God as they are in Matthew's gospel. (See: rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/kingdomofgod)
Special concepts in this chapter
"Eating the grain"
When the disciples plucked and ate the grain in a field they were walking through on the Sabbath (Luke 6:1), the Pharisees said that they were breaking the law of Moses. The Pharisees said that the disciples were doing work by picking the grain and so disobeying God's command to rest and not work on the Sabbath.
The Pharisees did not think the disciples were stealing. That is because the law of Moses required farmers to allow travelers to pluck and eat small amounts of grain from plants in fields they traveled through or near. (See: rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/lawofmoses and rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/works and rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/sabbath)
Important figures of speech in this chapter
Metaphor
Metaphors are pictures of visible objects that speakers use to explain invisible truths. Jesus used a metaphor of a generous grain merchant to teach his people to be generous (Luke 6:38). (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-metaphor)
Rhetorical Questions
Rhetorical questions are questions to which the speaker already knows the answer. The Pharisees scolded Jesus by asking him a rhetorical question when they thought he was breaking the Sabbath (Luke 6:2). (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-rquestion)
Other possible translation difficulties in this chapter
Implicit information
Speakers usually do not say things that they think their hearers already understand. When Luke wrote that the disciples were rubbing the heads of grain between their hands, he expected his reader to know that they were separating the part they would eat from what they would throw away (Luke 6:1). (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-explicit)
The twelve disciples
The following are the lists of the twelve disciples:
In Matthew:
Simon (Peter), Andrew, James son of Zebedee, John son of Zebedee, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot.
In Mark:
Simon (Peter), Andrew, James the son of Zebedee and John the son of Zebedee (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder), Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot.
In Luke:
Simon (Peter), Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon (who was called the Zealot), Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot.
Thaddaeus is probably the same person as Jude, the son of James.