Luke 9

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:

• Papyrus 75 (AD 175–225)
• Papyrus 45 (~250)
• Codex Vaticanus (325–350)
• Codex Sinaiticus (330–360)
• Codex Bezae (~400)
• Codex Washingtonianus (~400)
• Codex Alexandrinus (400–440)
• Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (~450)

Then he [Jesus Christ] called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils (or demons), and to cure diseases.[5]

The Syriac version (only) reads "his own twelve".[6] F. W. Farrar notes that Jesus commits to them both his power (capacity to act) and his authority (Greek: εξουσια, exousia, the right to act) over demons.[7]

He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.[8]

In the parallel account in Mark's Gospel they are sent out "in pairs".[9]

And He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.[10]

Cross reference: Matthew 10:10; Mark 6:8-9

• "Your journey": refers to the travel throughout the towns and cities, where they were sent to preach the Gospel.[6]
• "Neither staffs" (KJV: "staves"): The Latin Vulgate version and all the Oriental versions render in the singular number, "neither staff, rod, or club"; and so it was in one of Theodore Beza's ancient copies, but in all the rest in the plural, as in Matthew; which last must be the true reading, since one staff was allowed, according as in (Mark 6:8) though more than one were forbidden.[6]
• "Nor bag" (KJV: "scrip"): something to put provision in[6] (cf. Matthew 10:10).[11]
• "Nor money": Not to bring gold, silver, or brass, to buy bread with, because they were to get food, wherever they came, be given as their due and the reward of their labor,[6]
• "Two tunics apiece": The word "apiece" is omitted in one manuscript and not included in the Vulgate Latin and the eastern versions, which read as in (Matthew 10:10) though the word does aptly and clearly express the sense of the prohibition, that each man should not have two, or have change of raiment.[11]

Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him; and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead...[12]

Herod the Tetrarch was Herod Antipas. Mark 6:14 has the briefer words "When Herod heard". In his critical commentary, Heinrich Meyer suggests that Luke "evidently had [Mark] before him" and added "a definite object", namely "everything which was done", whereby is meant, "which was done by Jesus".[13]

... and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again.[14]

The Old Testament prophet Elijah is mentioned five times in this chapter, here and at verses 19, 30, 33 and in some witnesses, verse 54.

Herod said, “John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things?” So he sought to see Him.[15]

A "glowing reception at court" might have awaited Jesus, but it did not materialise.[13]

And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,[18]

The section from verse 51 of this chapter to Luke 19:28 contains an account of the "Perean and Later Judean Ministry", covering the period between Jesus' final departure from Galilee and the final week of his ministry. It took place partly in Perea, and partly Judea. Perea, east of Jordan, was in Herod's jurisdiction, whereas Judea, west of Jordan, was in Pilate's jurisdiction.[1] The Jerusalem Bible refers to this lengthy section as "The Journey to Jerusalem".[19] Luke's reference to Jesus being "received up", or "taken up to heaven",[20] uses the word Greek: ἀναλήμψεως, analēmpseōs,[21] which may be translated as "ascension" (New American Standard Bible) or as "assumption" (Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition). This word differs from those used by Luke in Luke 24:51 and Acts 1:9 for Jesus' ascension into heaven forty days after his resurrection. The Jerusalem Bible refers to the "assumption of Jesus", embracing Jesus' last days of suffering and the beginning of his glory, and compares this to John's "more theological" terminology of Jesus being glorified (John 12:23 and elsewhere).[22]

And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.[23]

Nicoll notes that it is sometimes referred to as the "Samaritan ministry": initially Jesus' disciples visit a Samaritan village (Luke 9:52), where they are not well-received, and they continue to "another village", probably back in Galilee.[2] Farrar raised the possibility that the Samaritan village was En Gannim (Fountain of Gardens), now Jenin in the northern West Bank, "the first village at which [a traveler taking the road from Galilee to Judea over Mount Tabor] would arrive".[7]

In Luke 9:56–57, an anonymous person says to Jesus, "I will follow you wherever you go". In German, it became the title of a hymn "So nimm denn meine Hände" by Julie Hausmann, asking for guidance, and often used for funerals.