Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Luke · About this commentary
Bent Double for Eighteen Years
Luke 13:10-17
10 He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day. · WEB
A woman who cannot stand up straight is healed on the Sabbath, and the synagogue ruler complains to the crowd about the timing.
There was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years. She was bent over, and could in no way straighten herself up Luke 13:11.
Only this Gospel records it, and the description is careful about what it was like: she could not raise her head, so for eighteen years she had seen feet and floors. Nothing suggests she came for healing. She is in the synagogue on the Sabbath because that is where she always was.
When Jesus saw her, he called her, and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your infirmity" Luke 13:12.
He sees her first — the same movement as at Nain Luke 7:13 — and calls her over. Nobody asks. And the word is freed, released, which the argument will pick up in a moment.
He laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight and glorified God Luke 13:13. The first thing she does with a straight back is look up.
The ruler of the synagogue, being indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the multitude, "There are six days in which men ought to work. Therefore come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day!" Luke 13:14.
He cannot bring himself to address the healer, so he lectures the congregation — and what he tells them is to come for healing on a working day, as though this were a clinic with hours. The objection also assumes she chose the day.
"You hypocrites! Doesn't each one of you free his ox or his donkey from the stall on the Sabbath and lead him away to water?" Luke 13:15.
The argument runs on their own practice. Watering livestock on the Sabbath was permitted; nobody left an animal thirsty for a day. And the verb is the one just used of the woman — they free their animals, untying a knot, every Sabbath of the year.
"Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound eighteen long years, be freed from this bondage on the Sabbath day?" Luke 13:16.
Every term is chosen. She is a daughter of Abraham, which places her above an ox in any reckoning they hold. She was bound, which makes the untying exact. And eighteen long years answers the ruler's suggestion that another day would have done.
The deepest part is the last: ought not. The Sabbath is not being excused; it is being claimed. A day that commemorates release from slavery Deuteronomy 5:15 is the fitting day for a woman to stand up, and the healing is not permitted despite the Sabbath but suited to it.
All his adversaries were disappointed; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him Luke 13:17.
settled What this mark means