The bull of St Luke

The Gospel of Luke

Chapter 19: Overview

The notable feature of this chapter is that the lengthy journey which Jesus began in 9,51 finally arrives at its destination, Jerusalem, in 19,45 we are told that Jesus enters the Temple. Chapter 19 is though a strange division within the Gospel as the arrival happens during the chapter, not at its end. Just when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem will be the key for our reading.

The chapter begins with Jesus still in Jericho and his encounter with Zacchaeus (19,1-10). We have seen this to be a pair with the healing of the blind beggar at the end of chapter 18 (18,35-43). As I said in chapter 18, we will read the two together.

A parable follows (19,11-28) which is told "because he was near Jerusalem" (verse 11). This parable ends with Jesus continuing his journey to Jerusalem (verse 28). Verse 28 concludes the parable with "after he had said this". The parable is clearly bracketed and given its setting by the two references to Jerusalem.

This means that the next stage begins in verse 29 when Jesus approaches the Mount of Olives. In verse 41 we are told that Jesus is close to Jerusalem but it is still "As he drew near" when he weeps over the city. It would seem that he is still on the Mount of Olives, looking across the valley towards the city. We can therefore read the two episodes in 19,29-40 together.

Finally in verse 45 we are told that Jesus enters the Temple. There he stays (in daytime at least, see 21,37) all the way through chapters 20 and 21. We can see that a bracket around the whole of His teaching there is formed by 19,47-48 and 21,37-38 with the comments about Jesus teaching and the people eager to listen to him.

Consequences

The first consequence of this overview is that, as we have aready concluded, it is best to read the two Jericho incidents (18,35 -19,10) together.

Another consequence of this overview is that, unlike most bibles and commentaries, we are reading verse 28 with the parable and not with the procession that follows on the Mount of Olives. The consequences of reading about that episode by beginning with verse 29 will become clear when we come to our reading.

Finally, there would be a good case for reading Jesus' entry into the Temple in verse 45 as part of the following chapter. For convenience, we will keep the reading of the those verses within chapter 19 and also read the lament, 19,41-44, on the same page.

We can now return to the main page and see our reading plan.