Luke 12:49-53
New Living Translation
Jesus Causes Division
49 “I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning! 50 I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished. 51 Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other! 52 From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against—or two in favor and three against.
53 ‘Father will be divided against son
and son against father;
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother;
and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’[a]”
Luke 12:49-53
New English Translation
Not Peace, but Division
49 “I have come[a] to bring[b] fire on the earth—and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism[c] to undergo,[d] and how distressed I am until it is finished! 51 Do you think I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division![e] 52 For from now on[f] there will be five in one household divided, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided,[g] father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Luke 12:49 sn This mission statement, “I have come to bring fire on the earth,” looks to the purging and division Jesus causes: See Luke 3:9, 17; 9:54; 17:29 for fire, 5:32; 7:34; 9:58; 12:51 for the topic of mission.
- Luke 12:49 tn Grk “cast.” For βάλλω (ballō) in the sense of causing a state or condition, see L&N 13.14.
- 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).
- Luke 12:50 tn Grk “to be baptized with.”
- 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).
- Luke 12:52 sn From now on is a popular phrase in Luke: 1:48; 5:10; 22:18, 69; see Mic 7:6.
- Luke 12:53 tn There is dispute whether this phrase belongs to the end of v. 52 or begins v. 53. Given the shift of object, a connection to v. 53 is slightly preferred.
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