Luke 4


Luke 4 is the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. This chapter details Jesus' three temptations, his rejection at Nazareth, and the start of his mission. Luke contrasts Jesus' reception in Nazareth with his acclaim in nearby Capernaum.

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek and is divided into 44 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
Jesus, as in Matthew 4 and Mark 1, travels into the desert and fasts for forty days. He is confronted by Satan, who tempts him in three ways:
This narrative is also found in –, but in Matthew the order of the second and third temptations is reversed. This was most probably in Q if that hypothesis is correct; perhaps their copies of Q were in a different order? This difference in orders presents a challenge for redactional criticism. It is unclear whether in Q, if it existed, the order was originally the same as Luke's and Matthew changed it to have it end on a mountain, a common motif of Matthew, such as and, or Luke changed it to have the temptations end in Jerusalem. Luke ends his gospel in Jerusalem in Luke 24. Most scholars believe Matthew's order was the order Q used.

Verse 13

Luke then says that Satan left Jesus "for a season"
or "until an opportune time". Satan appears later in Luke 22, entering Judas and leading him to betray Jesus. Brown sees his return in when Jesus says to those arresting him "But this is your hour — when darkness reigns".

Rejection at Nazareth

Jesus returns to Galilee "in the power of the Spirit", says Luke, and teaches in many of the synagogues there. One Shabbat, he goes to the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, gets up and reads a section of the Book of Isaiah, –, referring to himself as the fulfillment of this prophecy. Luke's text uses the Septuagint version, but the version Jesus read would have been in Hebrew.
The people are amazed at his assertion, but Jesus goes on the rebuke them, saying "I tell you the truth... no prophet is accepted in his hometown."

Verses 25–26

He tells them how in the time of Elijah only a woman from Sidon was saved, and during the time of Elisha a Syrian was healed. Outraged, the people attack him and chase him to the top of a hill and try to throw him off, but Jesus slips away. There are many hills in and around Nazareth, although the Upper Galilee region, further to the north, is more mountainous. Traditionally this event has been associated with Mount Precipice, some from Nazareth, but scholars now argue that this is unlikely to have been the venue because it is further than a Sabbath day's walk from the city.
The event is perhaps also depicted, though not word for word, in Mark and Matthew .

Teaching and Healing

Jesus goes to Capernaum and exorcises a possessed man in the synagogue, the first of Luke's 21 miracles. He goes to Simon's house and heals his sick mother-in-law. Mark 1 has this occur after Jesus called his disciples, while Luke puts that event into chapter 5.
He heals more and more people, then retreats to the wilderness for solitary prayer. They come and find him there but he tells them that he must also go to the surrounding towns, where he is to travel and preach the good news of the Kingdom of God, "because that is why I was sent". This section,, is almost exactly the same as Mark and can also be partially found in. Bengel notes: Here is Jesus’ "Creed": the reason for His many journeyings".

Jesus Preaches in Galilee

In verse 44, Luke affirms that Jesus continued preaching in the synagogues of Galilee. Some ancient manuscripts refer to τὰς συναγωγὰς τῆς Ἰουδαίας, tas synagōgas tēs Ioudaias, the synagogues of Judea.