Luke 11:29

The Sign of Jonah

11:29 As ¹  the crowds were increasing, Jesus ²  began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it looks for a sign, ³  but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. ⁴ 

Luke 19:22

19:22 The king ⁵  said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, ⁶  you wicked slave! ⁷  So you knew, did you, that I was a severe ⁸  man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow?

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¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ sn The mention of a sign alludes back to Luke 11:16. Given what Jesus had done, nothing would be good enough. This leads to the rebuke that follows.

⁴ sn As the following comparisons to Solomon and Jonah show, in the present context the sign of Jonah is not an allusion to Jonah being three days in the belly of the fish, but to Jesus’ teaching about wisdom and repentance.

⁵ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the nobleman of v. 12, now a king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Grk “out of your own mouth” (an idiom).

⁷ tn Note the contrast between this slave, described as “wicked,” and the slave in v. 17, described as “good.”

⁸ tn Or “exacting,” “harsh,” “hard.”