Luke 17:4-6 New English Translation
4 Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to you saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive[a] him.”
5 The[b] apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”[c] 6 So[d] the Lord replied,[e] “If[f] you had faith the size of[g] a mustard seed, you could say to this black mulberry[h] tree, ‘Be pulled out by the roots and planted in the sea,’[i] and it would obey[j] you.
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- Luke 17:4 sn You must forgive him. Forgiveness is to be readily given and not withheld. In a community that is to have restored relationships, grudges are not beneficial.
- Luke 17:5 tn Grk “And the.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
- Luke 17:5 sn The request of the apostles, “Increase our faith,” is not a request for a gift of faith, but a request to increase the depth of their faith.
- Luke 17:6 tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of previous action(s) in the narrative.
- Luke 17:6 tn Grk “said.”
- Luke 17:6 tn This is a mixed condition, with ἄν (an) in the apodosis.
- Luke 17:6 tn Grk “faith as,” “faith like.”
- Luke 17:6 sn A black mulberry tree is a deciduous fruit tree that grows about 20 ft (6 m) tall and has black juicy berries. This tree has an extensive root system, so to pull it up would be a major operation.
- Luke 17:6 tn The passives here (ἐκριζώθητι and φυτεύθητι, ekrizōthēti and phuteuthēti) are probably a circumlocution for God performing the action (the so-called divine passive, see ExSyn 437-38). The issue is not the amount of faith (which in the example is only very tiny), but its presence, which can accomplish impossible things. To cause a tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea is impossible. The expression is a rhetorical idiom. It is like saying a camel can go through the eye of a needle (Luke 18:25).
- Luke 17:6 tn The verb is aorist, though it looks at a future event, another rhetorical touch to communicate certainty of the effect of faith.
New English Translation (NET)
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