Luke 17:5-7 New English Translation

⁵The^[a] apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”^[b] ⁶So^[c] the Lord replied,^[d] “If^[e] you had faith the size of^[f] a mustard seed, you could say to this black mulberry^[g] tree, ‘Be pulled out by the roots and planted in the sea,’^[h] and it would obey^[i] you.

⁷“Would any one of you say^[j] to your slave^[k] who comes in from the field after plowing or shepherding sheep, ‘Come at once and sit down for a meal’?^[l]

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Footnotes

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.
Luke 17:7 tn Grk “Who among you, having a slave…would say to him.”
Luke 17:7 tn See the note on the word “slave” in 7:2.
Luke 17:7 tn Grk “and recline at table,” as 1st century middle eastern meals were not eaten while sitting at a table, but while reclining on one’s side on the floor with the head closest to the low table and the feet farthest away. See BDAG 70 s.v. ἀναπίπτω 1.

New English Translation (NET)