Discovery BoxLuke 17:6-7 
Context17:6 So 1 the Lord replied, 2 “If 3 you had faith the size of 4 a mustard seed, you could say to this black mulberry 5 tree, ‘Be pulled out by the roots and planted in the sea,’ 6 and it would obey 7 you.
17:7 “Would any one of you say 8 to your slave 9 who comes in from the field after plowing or shepherding sheep, ‘Come at once and sit down for a meal’? 10
1 tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of previous action(s) in the narrative.
2 tn Grk “said.”
3 tn This is a mixed condition, with ἄν (an) in the apodosis.
4 tn Grk “faith as,” “faith like.”
5 sn A black mulberry tree is a deciduous fruit tree that grows about 20 ft (6 m) tall and has black juicy berries. This tree has an extensive root system, so to pull it up would be a major operation.
6 tn The passives here (ἐκριζώθητι and φυτεύθητι, ekrizwqhti and futeuqhti) are probably a circumlocution for God performing the action (the so-called divine passive, see ExSyn 437-38). The issue is not the amount of faith (which in the example is only very tiny), but its presence, which can accomplish impossible things. To cause a tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea is impossible. The expression is a rhetorical idiom. It is like saying a camel can go through the eye of a needle (Luke 18:25).
7 tn The verb is aorist, though it looks at a future event, another rhetorical touch to communicate certainty of the effect of faith.
8 tn Grk “Who among you, having a slave… would say to him.”
9 tn See the note on the word “slave” in 7:2.
10 tn Grk “and recline at table,” as 1st century middle eastern meals were not eaten while sitting at a table, but while reclining on one’s side on the floor with the head closest to the low table and the feet farthest away. See BDAG 70 s.v. ἀναπίπτω 1.
