Luke 6:9

6:9 Then ¹  Jesus said to them, “I ask you, ²  is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save a life or to destroy it?”

Luke 23:35

23:35 The people also stood there watching, but the rulers ridiculed ³  him, saying, “He saved others. Let him save ⁴  himself if ⁵  he is the Christ ⁶  of God, his chosen one!”

---

¹ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

² sn With the use of the plural pronoun (“you”), Jesus addressed not just the leaders but the crowd with his question to challenge what the leadership was doing. There is irony as well. As Jesus sought to restore on the Sabbath (but improperly according to the leaders’ complaints) the leaders were seeking to destroy, which surely is wrong. The implied critique recalls the OT: Isa 1:1-17; 58:6-14.

³ tn A figurative extension of the literal meaning “to turn one’s nose up at someone”; here “ridicule, sneer at, show contempt for” (L&N 33.409).

⁴ sn The irony in the statement Let him save himself is that salvation did come, but later, not while on the cross.

⁵ tn This is a first class condition in the Greek text.

⁶ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

sn See the note on Christ in 2:11.