Luke 12:39
12:39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief 1 was coming, he would not have let 2 his house be broken into.
Luke 20:18
20:18 Everyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, 3 and the one on whom it falls will be crushed.” 4
1 sn On Jesus pictured as a returning thief, see 1 Thess 5:2, 4; 2 Pet 3:10; Rev 3:3; 16:15.
2 tc Most mss (א1 A B L Q W Θ Ψ 070 Ë1,13 33 Ï lat syp,h sams bo) read “he would have watched and not let” here, but this looks like an assimilation to Matt 24:43. The alliance of two important and early mss along with a few others (Ì75 א* [D] e i sys,c samss), coupled with much stronger internal evidence, suggests that the shorter reading is authentic.
3 tn On this term, see BDAG 972 s.v. συνθλάω.
4 tn Grk “on whomever it falls, it will crush him.”
sn This proverb basically means that the stone crushes, without regard to whether it falls on someone or someone falls on it. On the stone as a messianic image, see Isa 28:16 and Dan 2:44-45.