Luke 12:50-52

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Luke 12:50 sn The figure of the baptism is variously interpreted, as some see a reference (1) to martyrdom or (2) to inundation with God’s judgment. The OT background, however, suggests the latter sense: Jesus is about to be uniquely inundated with God’s judgment as he is rejected, persecuted, and killed (Pss 18:4, 16; 42:7; 69:1-2; Isa 8:7-8; 30:27-28; Jonah 2:3-6).
2. Luke 12:50 tn Grk “to be baptized with.”
3. Luke 12:51 tn Or “hostility.” This term pictures dissension and hostility (BDAG 234 s.v. διαμερισμός).sn For rhetorical reasons, Jesus’ statement is deliberately paradoxical (seeming to state the opposite of Matt 10:13, for example, where the messengers are to bring peace). The conflict implied by the division (the parallel in Matt 10:34 has “sword”) is not primarily eschatological in this context, however, but immediate, and concerns the hostility and discord even among family members that a person’s allegiance to Jesus would bring (vv. 52-53).
4. Luke 12:52 sn From now on is a popular phrase in Luke: 1:48; 5:10; 22:18, 69; see Mic 7:6.