Luke 5:12

Healing a Leper

5:12 While¹ Jesus² was in one of the towns,³ a man came⁴ to him who was covered with⁵ leprosy.⁶ When⁷ he saw Jesus, he bowed down with his face to the ground⁸ and begged him,⁹ “Lord, if¹⁰ you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Luke 6:49

6:49 But the person who hears and does not put my words into practice¹¹ is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When¹² the river burst against that house,¹³ it collapsed immediately, and was utterly destroyed!”¹⁴

¹tn Grk “And it happened that while.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

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

³tn Or “cities.”

⁴tn Grk “towns, behold, a man covered with leprosy.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou, “behold”) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

⁵tn Grk “full of leprosy” (an idiom for a severe condition).

⁶sn The ancient term for leprosy covers a wider array of conditions than what is called leprosy today. A leper was totally ostracized from society until he was declared cured (Lev 13:45-46).

⁷tn Grk “And seeing.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, δέ (de) has not been translated here. The participle ἰδών (idwn) has been taken temporally.

⁸tn Grk “he fell on his face”; an idiom for bowing down with one’s face to the ground.

⁹tn Grk “and begged him, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

¹⁰tn This is a third class condition. The report portrays the leper making no presumptions about whether Jesus will heal him or not.

¹¹tn Grk “does not do [them].”

¹²tn Grk “against which”; because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the relative clause was converted to a temporal clause in the translation and a new sentence started here.

¹³tn Grk “it”; the referent (that house) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴tn Grk “and its crash was great.”

sn The extra phrase at the end of this description (and was utterly destroyed) portrays the great disappointment that the destruction of the house caused as it crashed and was swept away.