A Jewish Bible Companion (Part 15 of 0)

A Reading Plan for the Gospel of Luke(6) – Part sixteen

In this article, we continue our study of Luke’s first principle lessons based on the weekly Torah readings from Deuteronomy. The parallels we identify suggest that Luke intended that his gospel be read alongside those readings. Similar modern practices include weeknight classes in which we do the daily Bible readings and Sunday exhortations based on the readings for the week.

Week 48

The Torah reading for week 48 is Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9 “Judges.” Luke’s three lessons for the week are: 1) Luke 13:10-21 about the healing of the bowed woman; 2) Luke 13:22-35 about Israel being rejected until they repent; 3) Luke 14:1-24 about the Pharisee’s dinner.

  • 48a. Gentile trees — Jesus compares the kingdom of God to “a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it” (Lk. 13:18-19; cp. Dan 4:10-12). The Greek word for “tree” occurs in the Torah readings, “When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by wielding an axe against them; for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged of thee? Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down” (Dt. 20:19-20 RV). In both cases, the reference is to Gentile trees. In using this allusion, Jesus’ subtle lesson may be that Gentiles would soon be accepted into the early ecclesia, the history of which Luke records in Acts.
  • 48b. Eating and drinking in his presence — The false (Jewish?) disciples said, “We have eaten and drunk in thy presence” (Lk. 13:26). That is, they were claiming to have kept the festival laws in Deuteronomy 16. In particular, “Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the Lord empty” (Dt. 16:16).
  • 48c. Workers of iniquity — Jesus responds to them, “I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity” (Lk. 13:27). These were the children of their fathers, who killed the prophets, and stoned them who were sent unto them (Lk. 13:34). Jesus may be implying that this generation of Israel was acting like Manasseh (II Chr. 33), the worker of iniquity who disobeyed the commandments in Deuteronomy 16:21-18:14.
  • 48d. Lifting a fallen ass or ox — Jesus’ response to the lawyers and Pharisees, “Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?” (Lk. 14:5; cp. 13:15) may have been suggested by “Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again” (DL 22:4), which would be read the following week.
  • 48e. Exhortation to be humble — The reading in Deuteronomy has an exhortation to kings (Dt. 17:14-20). A king was not to multiply horses, or wives, or silver and gold. He was to write out his own personal copy of the law, which he was to “read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God…that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren” (Dt. 17:19-20). In short, kings were to be humble, not thinking of themselves as superior to their fellowcitizens. Similarly, Luke records Jesus’ exhortation to humility (Lk. 14:7-­11). Jesus concludes the lesson with, “For every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Lk. 14:11 RV).
  • 48f. No respect of persons — Moses taught that judges were not to respect persons (Dt. 16:19). Jesus teaches the same lesson, “When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee” (Lk. 14:12).
  • 48g. Feed those unable to feed themselves — James associates the lesson of “no respect of persons” with an exhortation to provide food and clothing for our less fortunate brothers and sisters (Jas. 2). James got this idea from Jesus, who says, “But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just” (Lk. 14:13-14). Jesus’ point is rooted in Deuteronomy: Deuteronomy 18:1-8 tells how the Levites, who had no part of the inheritance of Israel, were to be provided food from the offerings of the people.
  • 48h. Excuses — Deuteronomy 20:1-9 lists four reasons that excused a man from military duty: if he had a new house, a new vineyard, a new wife, or if he was fearful and fainthearted. Jesus’ list of excuses that people gave for not coming to the great supper is very similar: the first claims to have a new field, the second a new team of oxen, and the third a new wife (Lk. 14:18-20). To put it bluntly, Jesus is saying that the Jews were intentionally abusing the law: they were turning expressions from the law into excuses not to follow the gospel of Christ.

Week 49

The Torah reading for week 49 is Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19 “When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies.” Luke’s three lessons for the week are: 1) Luke 14:25-35 on discipleship; 2) Luke 15:1-32 on repentance; 3) Luke 16:1-­18 on the unrighteous steward.

  • 49a. Hated wife — The Torah reading discusses the proper treatment of hated wives (Dt. 21:15-17; 22:13-21) Jesus uses the same words “hate” and “wife” in his exhortation on the cost of discipleship, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Lk. 14:26)
  • 49b. Building towers — Jesus’ example, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it” (Lk. 14:28-30), uses the same word “build” as “When thou buildest a new house” (Dt. 22:8).
  • 49c. When going forth to war — Jesus’ next example, “Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first” (Lk. 14:31), has the same word “war” as “When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies” (Dt. 21:10; cp. Dt. 23:9 Septuagint; 24:7).
  • 49d. Peace proposal — The king’s peace proposal, “Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace” (Lk. 14:32), is based on the readings, “When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it” (Dt. 20:10-12).
  • 49e. Things lost — Jesus tells three parables about repentance: the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son (Lk. 15). The basic idea for these parables of lost things comes from the readings, “Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray…In like manner shalt thou do with his ass; and so shalt thou do with his raiment; and with all lost thing of thy brother’s, which he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise: thou mayest not hide thyself’ (Dt. 22:1-3).
  • 49f. Two sons — The two sons in the parable of the prodigal (Lk. 15:11) recalls the two sons in Deuteronomy 21:15-18.
  • 49g. Inheritance to the sons — In both cases, the sons receive their inheritance: “The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living” (Lk. 15:12); “when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath” (DL 21:16).
  • 49h. A rebellious son, a glutton and drunkard — The sin of the younger son, “Not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living” (Lk. 15:13), refers to the sin of a rebellious son, “This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard” (Dt. 21:20). Unlike the law in Deuteronomy which allowed the parents to stone the son, the father in the parable rejoices at the return of his son.
  • 49i. Unrighteous stewards of the law — The parable of the unjust steward (Lk. 16:1-12) is probably talking about the unrighteous way the Pharisees administered the law of Moses (See Studies in the Gospels, Chapter 138, by Bro. Harry Whittaker). Jesus was exhorting the disciples that their administration of the law of Christ must be based on better principles than those of the Jewish leaders. Put simply, the rich man is God; the unjust steward represents the Pharisees and Sadducee’s, the administrators of the law of Moses; and the mammon represents the law of Moses. The “least” is the law of Moses and the “much” is the law of Christ. When they learned that their stewardship would be taken away from them, the Jewish leaders reduced the many man-made burdens that they had imposed on the people, thus gaining their favor. Instead, Jesus exhorts the disciples to make friends without using such unscrupulous tactics. Furthermore, he says that their unfaithful administration of the law of Moses showed that the Jews were not fit to administer the new law of Christ.
  • 49i. Servant — Jesus’ word for “servant” (Lk. 16:13) is the same that Moses used in his reminder that the Israel had been servants in Egypt (Dt. 24:18,22).
  • 49k. No man can serve two masters — In Luke (Lk. 16:13), Jesus is warning of the dangers of pleasing men instead of God (Lk. 16:15; cp. Mt. 6:1-18). The Jews had become men-pleasers by replacing the law of Moses with their own rules (cp. Mt. 15:3-9; Lk. 16:18).
  • 49l. Abomination in the sight of God — Jesus’ scathing “for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God” (Lk. 16:15), uses the same word “abomination” found in the weekly Torah readings (DL 22:5; 23:18; 24:4; 25:16).
  • 49m. Divorce — Jesus gives a specific example of the kind of thing he is referring to: the Jews had done everything they could to avoid the clear teaching of the law concerning marriage and divorce. In contrast, Jesus restores the original intent, saying that “whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery” (Lk. 16:18). The idea for this example comes from the readings in Deuteronomy (DL 24:1-4).

Week 50

The Torah reading for week 50 is Deuteronomy 26:1-29:9 “When thou art come in unto the land;” Luke’s three lessons for the week are: 1) Luke 16:18­-17:4 about the rich man and Lazarus; 2) Luke 17:5-10 about being merely unprofitable servants; 3) Luke 17:11-19 about the ten lepers.

  • 50a. Poor at the gate — The parable of the rich man and Lazarus has a number of allusions to the weekly Torah reading. That Lazarus was a poor beggar laid at the gate of the rich man desiring to be fed (Lk. 16:20-21) recalls the law of tithing that the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, “might eat within thy gates, and be filled” (Dt. 26:12-13)
  • 50b. Sores — Lazarus was “full of sores…the dogs came and licked his sores” (Lk. 16:20-21) uses the same word “sores” as in the curses, “The Lord will smite thee with the botch (i.e., sore)…The Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed” (Dt. 28:27,35).
  • 50c. Tormented in flame — The rich man says he is “tormented in this flame” (Lk. 16:24), not unlike the curse, “The Lord shall smite thee…with a fever, and with an inflammation” (Dt. 28:22).
  • 50d. Blessings and cursings — The “good things” and the “evil things” (Lk. 16:25) recall the blessings and cursings (DL 27-28). The same words “good” and “evil” are used in Deuteronomy 30:15, “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil,” which would usually be read the following week.
  • 50e. Lepers to the priest — “There met him ten men that were lepers…And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests” (Lk. 17:12,14) refers to the law, “Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that thou observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so ye shall observe to do” (Dt. 24:8), which would have been read a week earlier.

So far we have covered weeks 44 through 50 in Luke’s Deuteronomy section. Each of Luke’s readings for these seven weeks is stock full of allusions to the weekly readings in Deuteronomy. In this article alone, we have found eight parallels in week 48, 13 parallels in week 49, and five parallels in week 50.