Composition

Luke 12 ends with five sayings whose only link to each other or earlier sayings is a focus on a coming crisis. Matthew puts the last three in different clusters of Q material (the mission speech, the request for a sign, and Jesus' opening sermon), where they fit better. It is unlikely that Luke cut these pieces out of good contexts and lumped them together in a poorer one. So this is probably where these sayings were located in Q.

Matthew has no parallel to the first two sayings in Luke's string, so they may not have been in Q. On the other hand, Matthew may have omitted them when he was looking for better places to put the other sayings in this cluster. Some scholars think they were in Q because Luke had no good reason to add them here, if they weren't.

	Luke 12:49-59	Thom 10
		Jesus said:
	49 "I came	"I have cast
	to set the earth on fire,	fire upon the world,
	and how I wish	and look,
		I'm guarding it
	it were already ablaze!	until it blazes."
Mark 10:38
38 Jesus said to them:
"You have no idea
what you're asking for.
Can you drink the cup
I'm drinking, or
go through the baptism	50 "I have a baptism
	to be baptized with,
	and what pressure
I'm going through?"	I'm under	Thom 16
Matt 10:34-36	until it is over!	1 Jesus said:
34 Don't get the idea	51 Do you think	"Perhaps people think
thatI came	I came here	that I've come
to bring peace	to bring peace	to cast peace
on earth.	on earth?	on the world.
I didn't come	No, I'm telling you,	2 They don't know
to bring peace,	on the contrary:	that I've come
	conflict.	to sow conflict
		upon the earth:
but a sword.		fire, sword and war.
35 After all,	52 As a result,	3 For
	from now on	there'll be five
	in any given house	in a house;
	there will be	there'll be
	five in conflict,
	three against two	three against two
	and two against three.	and two against three,
I've come to pit	53 Father will be pitted	father
	against son	against son
a man	and son	and son
against his father,	against father,	against father,
	mother against daughter
a daughter	and daughter
against her mother	against mother,
	mother-in-law against
	daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law	and daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law.	against mother-in-law."
36 Your enemies live		4 and they will stand
under your own roof."		alone."

Image

Luke 12:49 is one of the most cryptic sayings in the gospels. It identifies Jesus' mission as intentionally inflammatory. Thus, it conflicts with the image of Jesus as a peace-maker, which Luke usually stresses (see Luke 2:14, 19:42). But it fits Q's opening prediction that John the Baptist's successor will start an unquenchable fire (Luke 3:16-17//Matt 3:11-12). Here Jesus claims that role.

Thomas imagines a campfire rather than a conflagration. Unlike Luke, he claims the fire has already been kindled; and Jesus tends it like a boy scout rather than waiting like an arsonist for it to spread.

Attribution

Fire on earth	%	Red	Pink	Grey	Black	WA	Print
Luke 12:49 Thom 10		12 18	18 39	36 21	33 21	36 52	grey pink

Some Fellows voted grey or black because this saying has no clear context in Jesus' career. But most Fellows thought it echoed something Jesus must have said. It is a pithy and provocative aphorism with a graphic but inexplicit image, which makes it memorable. It challenges the mind to make sense of it. Early collections of oral tradition (Q and Thomas) interpret it differently. Since it might be taken as an admission that Jesus was a deliberate troublemaker, it is easy to explain why Matthew would have omitted it. Yet, Luke 10:49 corresponds to words that only Q ascribes to John the Baptist. So, most Fellows thought that Thom 10 is probably closer to the original form.

Ready for baptism	%	Red	Pink	Grey	Black	WA	Print
Luke 12:50 Mark 10:38d		3 7	6 0	9 27	82 67	10 19	black black

Source

This saying is about a future baptism rather than Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist --- a scene in the canonical gospels that probably had no parallel in Q. In Q (Luke 3:16//Matt 3:11) John predicts that his successor will baptize with fire. So Q may also have linked this verse to Jesus' fire saying. Both express eagerness for something to happen. Any writer who thought that Jesus had already been baptized had reason to omit this saying (like Matthew) or alter it (like Mark). Yet, this saying is not about someone who baptizes others, as John had predicted. Thus, it does not fit Q's view of Jesus' mission any better than its context in Luke.

Mark's version refers to others being baptized like Jesus. In Mark's context this is a cryptic reference to Jesus'  death. Matthew omits this version, too, even though he paraphrases the rest of Mark's narrative setting (disciples jostling for priority). Scholars who doubt that this saying was in Q think Luke extracted this saying when he moved the rest of Mark's story to another setting. Thus, it is not clear whether there were two sources for this saying or only one: Mark.

Attribution

A few Fellows voted red or pink on Luke 12:50, since they did not think Luke or Q would create the idea of a future baptism for Jesus. Others thought the cryptic irony of Mark's metaphor was typical of Jesus. But the great majority were persuaded that Luke probably revised a line that Mark created for his own readers.

Peace or sword	%	Red	Pink	Grey	Black	WA	Print
Luke 12:51-53 Matt 10:34-36 Thom 16		7 0 0	27 21 16	13 29 34	53 50 50	29 24 22	grey black black

Variants

All versions of this saying identify Jesus as a catalyst for social division. But no two sayings are alike in all details, which makes it hard to identify its original formulation. That task is complicated by the fact that its description of domestic discord paraphrases this lament by the prophet Micah about a breakdown in social order in ancient Judea:

"Put no trust in a friend,
have no confidence in a loved one;...
for the son treats the father with contempt,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
your enemies are members of your own household."
     --- Mic 7:5-6

Matthew offers a close paraphrase of the Hebrew prophet's lament over the disrespect of members of the younger generation for their elders. Both Luke and Thomas change the thrust of that complaint by presenting a description of repressive elders before mentioning the rebellious youth. Another noticeable difference is that, like the Hebrew prophet, the synoptic roster of domestic adversaries includes females while Thomas only mentions males.

Furthermore, while all versions present Jesus as a disturber of the peace, the exact word(s) used to describe the kind of turmoil caused vary. Luke simply mentions unspecified conflict, while Matthew introduces the specter of physical violence by invoking the image of a sword. Thomas cites both terms and escalates the conflict to all out war.

Attribution

Some Fellows thought it unlikely that any early Christian writer would have created a saying that described Jesus as a disturber of the peace unless he had said something like this. Still, most were agreed that the suggestion that Jesus meant to incite violence or armed conflict (Matt 10:34 and Thom 16:2) was incompatible with genuine Jesus sayings like "love your enemy" and "turn the other cheek." Hence the predominance of black votes on those versions of this saying.

Many, however, noted that Luke's focus simply on domestic disputes reflected a realistic assessment of the inevitable conflict between traditional family discipline and Jesus' view of the status of children in God's domain (see Mark 10:14-15). Still, the obvious parallels between this saying and a passage from Jewish scripture (Mic 7:5-6) that any early Christian scribe might know makes it impossible to prove that it could have been formulated only by Jesus himself.

Matt 16:2-3	Luke 12:54-56	Thom 91:2
2 In response he said	54 He would also say	2 He said
to them:	to the crowds:	to them:
"When it's evening	"When you see a cloud
	arising in the west,
you say	right away you say
'It'll be fair weather,	that it's going to rain;
because the sky	and so it does.
looks red.'
3 Early in the morning	55 And when the wind
	blows from the south,
'The day will bring	you say
winter weather	we're in for scorching heat;
because the sky	and we are.
looks red and dark.'
	56 You phonies! *
You know	You know	"You
	the lay of the land
how to read	and can read	examine
the face of the sky,	the face of the sky,	the face of heaven
but	so why	and earth but
you can't	don't you	you have not
discern	know	come to know the one
		who is your presence,
		and you don't know
	how to interpret	how to examine
the signs of the time."	the present time?"	the present moment."

* Greek: ὑπόκριταις (lit: "hypocrites,"
the technical Greek word for theater actors)

Source(s)

Luke and Thomas have a saying mocking people who understand the weather but not the present. It is not certain that the earliest editions of Matthew contained it, since it is not in many of the oldest Greek manuscripts and was omitted from the Jewish Christian gospel of the Nazoreans. The main reason for thinking it was not interpolated into Matthew at a later date is that its context and most of its wording differ from Luke's. There is enough of a common core, however, to  conclude that it must have been in Q. Thus there were probably two independent sources of this saying: Q and Thomas.

Performances

Q focused on signs of change, Thomas did not. The weather indicators in Luke accurately reflect the climate of the eastern Mediterranean. Matthew's are less certain. Both contrast ability to forecast the future with lack of attention to present conditions. Thomas takes the allusion to the present to mean a person, probably Jesus. Only in Luke are the forecasters called "phonies."

Attribution

Knowing the times	%	Red	Pink	Grey	Black	WA	Print
Luke 12:54-56 Matt 16:2-3 Thom 91:2		7 4 8	29 15 8	43 58 58	21 23 27	40 33 32	grey grey grey

Here concrete imagery is used to challenge inconsistent behavior as in other Jesus sayings (e.g., Thom 26:1//Luke 6:41-42//Matt 7:3-4). Except for Luke's name-calling, the barb is buried in ironic observations. And the focus on current events is consistent with genuine Jesus sayings like Luke 11:19-20//Matt 12:27-28). Thus, most Fellows thought this comment fit Jesus' characteristic style. On the other hand, its original context is unclear. And the variations make it hard to credit any formula directly to Jesus. Hence, the preponderance of grey votes.

Matt 5:25-26	Luke 12:58-59	Did 1:5b
	58 "When you're about
	to appear with your accuser
	before the magistrate,
25 "You should settle	do your best to settle
with your accuser	with him
while you are both
on the way <to court>,	on the way,
or else your accuser	or else he
will turn you over	might drag you up
to the judge,	before the judge,
and the judge	and the judge
	turn you over
to the bailiff,	to the jailer,
and you are thrown	and the jailer throw you
in jail.	in prison.	...and when in prison
		he shall be examined
26 Let tell you,	59 I'm telling you,	as to his deeds, and
you'll never get out	you'll never get out	he shall not come out
of there	of there	of there
until you've paid	until you've paid	until he pays
the last dime."	every last cent."	the last penny.

Source

Q contained advice to defendants to settle disputes out of court. The Didache echoes the final warning (Luke 12:59//Matt 5:26) in a different context, without citing Jesus as the source.

Attribution

Pacify your opponent	%	Red	Pink	Grey	Black	WA	Print
Luke 12:58-59 Matt 5:25-26 Did 1:5b		11 7 0	56 59 4	15 15 54	19 19 42	53 52 21	pink pink black

This is a practical policy based on self-interest which anyone could have formulated. It exploits a common fear (being jailed) rather than challenging social attitudes; and it had relevance for early Christians facing arrest after Jesus' death. Q is the only source. Thus, several Fellows judged it too weak to be numbered among things Jesus probably said.

On the other hand, there is no sign of official group persecution. The saying concerns individual cases which had a cash penalty. These were of special concern to the debt-ridden poor class that Jesus addressed (see Luke 6:20//Thom 54 and Luke 11:4//Matt 6:12). And the idea of cooperating with demands from hostile parties is a fundamental strategy of many genuine Jesus sayings (see notes on Luke 6:29-30//Matt 5:39-42). So most of the Fellows regarded this saying as genuine, too.