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Luke

About this book
Chapter 17

1 Jesus said to his disciples, “Stumbling blocks are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! 2 It would be better for him to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 Watch yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. 4 Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to you saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 So the Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this black mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled out by the roots and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. 7 “Would any one of you say to your slave who comes in from the field after plowing or shepherding sheep, ‘Come at once and sit down for a meal’? 8 Won’t the master instead say to him, ‘Get my dinner ready, and make yourself ready to serve me while I eat and drink. Then you may eat and drink’? 9 He won’t thank the slave because he did what he was told, will he? 10 So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, ‘We are slaves undeserving of special praise; we have only done what was our duty.’”⁠ 11 Now on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was entering a village, ten men with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance, 13 raised their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went along, they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He fell with his face to the ground at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. (Now he was a Samaritan.) 17 Then Jesus said, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found to turn back and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to the man, “Get up and go your way. Your faith has made you well.” 20 Now at one point the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, so he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’⁠ For indeed, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”⁠ 22 Then he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.⁠ 23 Then people will say to you, ‘Look, there he is!’ or ‘Look, here he is!’ Do not go out or chase after them. 24 For just like the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. 25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage—right up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, people were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; 29 but on the day Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 It will be the same on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, anyone who is on the roof, with his goods in the house, must not come down to take them away, and likewise the person in the field must not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife!⁠ 33 Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, in that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken and the other left.⁠ 35 There will be two women grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” 36 Then the disciples said to him, “Where, Lord?” He replied to them, “Where the dead body is, there the vultures will gather.”

Texts in conversation

Compare Luke 17:10 and Pirkei Avot 1:3

New Testament · Rabbinic

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Summary

Rabbinic tradition in Pirkei Avot urges people to serve God as servants who work without expecting a reward. In Luke, Jesus expresses a similar tradition, telling his disciples to say they are only servants who have done their duty.

Passages

Luke 17:10

New Testament
7 “Would any one of you say to your slave who comes in from the field after plowing or shepherding sheep, ‘Come at once and sit down for a meal’? 8 Won’t the master instead say to him, ‘Get my dinner ready, and make yourself ready to serve me while I eat and drink. Then you may eat and drink’? 9 He won’t thank the slave because he did what he was told, will he? 10 So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, ‘We are slaves undeserving of special praise; we have only done what was our duty.’”
75–85 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Luke

Pirkei Avot 1:3

Rabbinic · Mishnah
2 Shimon the Righteous was one of the last of the men of the Great Assembly. He used to say: the world stands upon three things: the Torah, the Temple service, and the practice of acts of piety. 3 Antigonus a man of Socho received the oral tradition from Shimon the Righteous. He used to say: do not be like servants who serve the master in the expectation of receiving a reward, but be like servants who serve the master without the expectation of receiving a reward, and let the fear of Heaven be upon you. 4 Yose ben Yoezer of Zeredah and Yose ben Yohanan of Jerusalem received the oral tradition from them. Yose ben Yoezer used to say: let your house be a house of meeting for the Sages, sit in the very dust of their feet, and drink in their words with thirst.
190–230 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Pirkei Avot

References

... We are unprofitable servants. That is, we recognize that what we have managed to do in God's service is still inadequate. The sense of the adjective achreios is disputed. Literally, it means 'useless, worthless' and is used in this sense in the only other place in the New Testament in which it occurs (Matthew 25:30, for the servant who has done nothing). It was often used of slaves. ... we have only done our duty. Literally, 'we have done what we are bound to do.' Compare the later dictum of Antigonus of Socho: 'Be not like slaves that serve the master for the sake of receiving a bounty; but be like slaves that serve the master not for the sake of receiving a bounty; and let the fear of heaven be upon you' (Mishnah Abot 1:3). Or the advice attributed to R. Yohanan b. Zakkai: 'He used to say, If you have achieved much in the Law, claim no merit for yourself; for this purpose were you created' (Mishnah Abot 2:8). ...
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke X–XXIV (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1985), 1147.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Luke 17:10 and Pirkei Avot 1:3

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