Bible Study series: Luke 13:10-17. Jesus interpreted Sabbath keeping and working on it in ways that frustrated the synagogue ruler.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 13:10-17
10 Now, he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And look! A woman having a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years! She was bent over and unable to stand up completely straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you have been freed of your infirmity!” 13 And he placed his hands on her, and instantly she straightened up and began to glorify God. 14 In reply, the synagogue ruler, indignant that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, proceeded to tell the crowd, “There are six days you ought to work; on one of them come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day!” 15 In reply to him, the Lord said, “Hypocrites! Doesn’t each one of you untie his ox or donkey from its stall and lead it to drink on the Sabbath? 16 Should not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound—look at her!—eighteen years, be loosed from this bondage on the Sabbath day? 17 After saying these things, his opponents were put to shame, and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful works that were done by him. (Luke 13:10-17)
Comments:
One scholar summarizes the parallel:
| Animal | Woman |
| Ox or donkey | Daughter of Abraham |
| Bound in a stall | Being bound by Satan |
| Being loosed (physically) | Being loosed (spiritually with physical consequences) |
| Necessity to work six days | Necessity of divine healing / liberation on any say including the Sabbath |
| Garland, p. 544, slightly edited | |
This argument is called from the lesser (donkeys and oxen) to the greater (woman). A woman is much more important than oxen or donkeys!
10:
I like the ESV’s section title: “A Woman with a Disabling Spirit.” But my section title describes her more precisely.
Yes, Jesus honored the Sabbath—or at least he liked to enter a synagogue and teach there (Luke 4:15, 16). He probably knew something dramatic would happen on this day. No doubt he saw the daughter of Abraham coming into the synagogue. He may have even seen her walking through the village or area. He may have met her because he knew she had been like that for eighteen years (see vv. 15-16 for more discussion).
As to the Sabbath, the Spirit, inspiring the writers of the New Covenant Scriptures after Pentecost, frees us from Sabbath obligations (Luke 6:5; Rom. 14:5; Col. 2:16-19). But if you want to take a day or two off, go for it. Just don’t do it because one of the Ten Commandments tells you to. The Ten Commandments contain theological truths and moral laws. Learn and obey them. The Sabbath, in contrast, is a ritual, and the New Covenant frees us from all such rituals.
Do Christians Have to ‘Keep’ the Ten Commandments?
The Sabbath was the fourth commandment of the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20:8-11 and Deut. 5:12-15), but those verses do not describe how to keep it. In Num. 15:32-36, people found a man gathering wood, and Moses ordered them to stone him to death. So what kind of interpretations can come from that illegal act and punishment? Was plucking heads of grain the same thing? But the disciples—not Jesus, incidentally—were eating them, so does that excuse them, since they were saving their own lives (if we stretch things)? Apparently not, because healing on the Sabbath was questionable behavior, too (Luke 6:6-11). Or in the next passage, maybe the man with the withered hand was not in a life-or-death situation, while the disciples were.
Here are the Mishnah’s thirty-nine categories of work that were not allowed. This comes from the second century, but it does reflect the times of Jesus:
- Sowing, plowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, selecting, grinding, sifting, kneading, and baking.
- Shearing wool, bleaching, hackling, dyeing, spinning, stretching the threads, the making of two meshes, weaving two threads, dividing two threads, tying [knotting] and untying, sewing two stitches, and tearing in order to sew two stitches.
- Capturing a deer, slaughtering, or flaying, or salting it, curing its hide, scraping it [of its hair], cutting it up, writing two letters, and erasing in order to write two letters [over the erasure].
- Building, pulling down, extinguishing, kindling, striking with a hammer, and carrying out from one domain to another.
These are the forty primary labors less one.
(Source)
The rest of the tractate at another source goes on to define the parameters more precisely.
Religious teachers debated these issues endlessly. In effect, these strict teachers of the law said it was better that people should virtually do nothing on the Sabbath. It is better to be safe than sorry, to be severe and austere than risk too much questionable behavior before a holy God. This is called building a wall or fence around the Torah, so that people would not really break the Torah, but the traditions. Problem: the extra-rules became so strict that people felt oppressed.
11:
“look!” this has often been translated as the older “behold!” I like “behold!” but I updated it. It is the storyteller’s art to draw attention to the people and action that follow.
“spirit”: many of our fellow believers in Christ teach that this was not really a spirit, but a disposition of some sort. Of course they are wrong. A spirit really did hold her down. So when does the physical end and the spiritual begin, or the spiritual end and the physical begin? This question is impossible to answer with full precision. So we need the discerning of spirits, a gift which is designed just for this need (1 Cor. 12:7-11). This gift is not for bossing people around or scaring people about a satanic atmosphere; it is for freeing specific people from specific demonic oppression.
7. Gifts of the Spirit: Discernings of Spirits
Evidently, Jesus used the discerning of spirits to understand that Satan was involved in her condition. But please don’t draw the far-reaching conclusion that Satan is behind every sickness. Sometimes the body just gets weak (“unstrong”) and deteriorates naturally.
“infirmity”: It means, depending on the context, primarily “weakness”; and secondarily “sickness, disease.” The NIV translates it throughout the NT: weakness (most often), weaknesses, weak, crippled, diseases, illness, illnesses, infirmities, infirmity, invalid, sick, sickness, sicknesses. Here it means a physical handicap or infirmity.
12:
I like how Jesus saw her somewhere in the synagogue and called her forward. He called her to himself. It moves and inspires me that he is about to work a miracle, and he is so confident in his ability to do so that he calls her forth in front of everyone. I hear stories about healing evangelists who get a picture of a disease on someone—like an x-ray superimposed on his body—and call him forward. Then the prayer of healing takes place. Wonderful. I celebrate things like that, like the people are about to do in this pericope or section of Scripture.
“woman”: Some may think that he was disrespecting her by calling her by the impersonal “woman!” But in their culture, it is like saying “ma’am.” That’s a cultural difference between us and them back then. He called her by a title of respect. He was also using his authority. It may have been inappropriate—too familiar—to learn her name in a synagogue setting, where women sat separately from men.
“you have been freed”: It is in the perfect tense (completed past tense) and passive (it is being done for her and on her). BDAG, considered the authoritative Greek lexicon of the NT, says the verb means, depending on the context: (1) “as a legal term, to grant acquittal, set free, release, pardon”; (2) “to release from a painful condition, free”; (3) “to permit or cause someone to leave a particular location, let go, send away, dismiss”; (4) “to grant a request and so be rid of a person, satisfy”; (5) “to dissolve a marriage relationship, to divorce”; (6) in the middle voice, “to make a departure from a locality, go away.” Here the second definition fits best, but the first and third ones are also attractive. It is used only here as a command of healing, but it is used in the medical community of the ancient world to describe the relaxing of tendons and taking off bandages, among other things (Culy, Parsons, Stigall, p. 457). Recall that Luke was called a “beloved physician” (Col. 4:14).
So Jesus pronounces her healing in the completed past tense, as if it had already happened in the Spirit and in his vision or mind. It was a done deal. Such faith!
13:
“He placed his hands on her.” This is part of healing, as well. It offers the personal touch, literally.
Renewalists also believe that power can be transferred from one person to the another, as the Spirit wills (Luke 6:19; 8:41-48). The most remarkable example is when many people from all over Israel, and Tyre and Sidon, touched him. “And the entire multitude was trying to touch him because power came out of him and healed them” (6:19). Such a display of manifest power is stunning. He laid hands on other people too (Luke 4:40; 6:13).
She instantly or immediately was straightened up. And therefore she instantly and immediately praised or glorified God. How did she do this? She probably lifted her hands straight up to give thanks. She tested her back. She moved and twisted around. She bent forwards and backwards. Then she shouted her praise—or probably did that. Wouldn’t you? Luke often notes that praise comes out of a healing or another blessing (2:20; 4:15; 5:25-26; 7:16; 17:15; 18:43).
14:
Sigh. The synagogue ruler could not look past the law. Jewish doctors could treat a person on the Sabbath when a life was threatened or death was imminent, but this woman was not in imminent danger or at death’s door. She had this condition for eighteen years. He and she could have waited another day, on (our) Sunday, for example. But he looked past the traditions and healed her.
Quick sidebar comment: the synagogue ruler said one ought to work on the other six days. He was right about that, at least. Jesus didn’t disagree. Work is honorable.
The synagogue official sees the world only through the prism of law, and it distorts his reasoning. He does not see the woman as an individual afflicted by Satan and desperate for release, but rather as a nuisance who gets in the way of his ultimate concern, namely, maintaining Sabbath restrictions. She is not in a life-or-death situation, and it was not hurt for her to be bent over one more day. The ruler also cannot see that this healing is a divine work but equates what has happened with “human work.” Jesus’’ response, however, makes clear that it is a divine liberation, like Israel’s liberation from the bondage in Egypt” (Garland, comment on 13:14).
15-16:
Hypocrites could be translated as “Inconsistent ones!” Originally, the term comes from the Greek play actor on the stage. They wore masks and played roles. There were stock characters, such as the buffoon, the bombastic soldier, or the old miser. In this context hypocrites appeared one way, but in reality they were different. They appeared outwardly religious, but inwardly they were full of dead men’s bones. They wore religious masks. The synagogue ruler was blinded by legalistic tradition. Jesus used the plural of the noun, probably because experts or teachers of the law and Pharisees were in the synagogue, nodding their approval for what the ruler had said.
Jesus’s response was perfect. He uses the argument of the lesser (ox or donkey) to the greater (daughter of Abraham). If you benefit your own livestock on the Sabbath, then this daughter of Abraham must be benefited.
“Satan”: he is an evil spirit being, with a mind, will and perhaps even emotions. We can see this emotional side when demons shriek as they leave someone. They cry out when they are defeated. Satan is the leader of all demons, and here he stands in for demons generally. We should not make too much of Jesus invoking him by name, because he personally did not likely possess that part of this woman’s body. In v. 11 Luke informs us that “a spirit” of infirmity had attached itself to her. We say “Satan attacked me” when we mean a demonic attack generally. It’s the same thing here. Jesus was speaking in general terms. This daughter of Abraham was, in part, under the thrall or bondage of Satan’s kingdom.
See my posts about Satan in the area of systematic theology:
Bible Basics about Satan and Demons and Victory Over Them
Bible Basics about Deliverance
Magic, Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Fortunetelling
Yes, if people back then untied (verb luō and pronounced loo-oh) their oxen or donkeys to lead them to water, then shouldn’t this daughter of Abraham be loosed (also luō) from her infirmity—look! for eighteen years?
In loosing the woman from Satan’s grasp, I like how Luke used both terms to express the spiritual truth of freedom, in a kind of wordplay. The whole pericope is about freedom from disease and Satan.
“look at her”: it is the verb “look” again (see v. 11 for more comments), and “at her” has been added because I can Jesus pointing to her and saying, “Look at how long she had been tied up by Satan—eighteen years! She is of much more value than an ox or donkey!” While he is saying that, she is praising God, testing her physical healing about leaning backward and forward and twisting around.
Where did Jesus learn she was bound for eighteen years? (a).. He had met her before and asked her, but waited to heal her until the Sabbath; (b).. He did in fact interview her in the synagogue just before he healed her; (c).. Someone told her either when he saw her from a distance or in the synagogue. We don’t know. But it is important to ask this question because those of us who believe in divine healing want to follow Jesus’s example of ministry. My best guess is that he asked her just before he spoke healing to her and laid hands on her. “How long have you had this spirit of infirmity?” She told him. Then: “Woman, you have been freed of your infirmity!” Wow. Faith!
“Is a person not as important as a beast of burden (see 12:7; see 1 Cor 9:8-10)? Animals are unbound on the Sabbath; this woman was unbound on the Sabbath. The difference is that she was unbound by God, and she was not set free from a stall but from the captivity of Satan” (Garland, comment on 13:15).
He clarifies that her restoration by God’s power means that God is working through Jesus to restore Israel and to throw off the shackles of Satan. Luke looks at Jesus ministry as a battle with Satan (10:18; 11:14-23; 22:3, 31) and at disease as evidence of Satan’s tyrannous influence (Acts 10:38).
If animals were bound or tied up in their stables or barns, and they are unbound or untied, then this woman can be unbound or untied from Satan’s control (Stein, comment on v. 16).
What Does the New Covenant Retain from the Old?
Do Christians Have to ‘Keep’ the Ten Commandments?
Ten Commandments: God’s Great Compromise with Humanity’s Big Failure
One Decisive Difference Between Sinai Covenant and New Covenant
17:
The crowds are dividing into two big opinions: “The healing leaves no room to sit on the fence” (Bock. p. 1219).
First-century Israel was an honor-and-shame society. Verbal and active confrontations happened often. By active is meant actions. Here the confrontation is both verbal and acted out. Jesus healed the deformed woman, so he won the actual confrontation, and this victory opened the door to his verbal victory with religious leaders who were binding people up with traditions. They needed to be loosed from them. He even called the leaders “hypocrites!” It may seem strange to us that Jesus would confront human opponents, because we are not used to doing this in our own lives, and we have heard that Jesus was meek and silent.
But here it is about replying to the synagogue ruler and defeating him and his needlessly restrictive traditions. Get into a discussion and debate with your challengers. Stand toe to toe with them. In short, fight like Jesus! But you don’t have to call them hypocrites (or you could), unless you have no hypocrisy lurking inside you.
Of course, caution is needed. The original context is a life-and-death struggle between the kingdom of God and religious traditions. Get the original context, first, before you fight someone in a verbal sparring match. This was a clash of worldviews. Don’t pick fights or be rude to your spouse. Discuss things with him or her.
Now the crowds were (temporarily) on his side because of the miracle they saw and the liberation they felt from the religious leaders’ draconian rules and traditions. What a relief for them and for her! The two cases parallel each other—she was loosed from her physical bondage, and they were loosed from their religious bondage.
GrowApp for Luke 13:10-17
1. This passage is all about liberation from Satan’s bondage, which included physical deformity. How has God worked to free you from Satan and any physical ailments?
2. This passage is also about liberation from religious bondage. Have you ever allowed added-on traditions and added ritualistic rules to interfere with your relationship with God?
RELATED
11. Eyewitness Testimony in Luke’s Gospel
3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 