Unexpected Thief

How to cite this article:
Joshua N. Tilton and David N. Bivin, “Unexpected Thief,” The Life of Yeshua: A Suggested Reconstruction (Jerusalem Perspective, 2024) [https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/29422/].

Matt. 24:43-44; Luke 12:39-40

(Huck 158, 225; Aland 203, 296; Crook 239, 338)^[73]

Updated: 10 January 2025

וּדְעוּ זוֹ שֶׁאִילּוּ יָדַע בַּעַל הַבַּיִת בְּאֵי זוֹ שָׁעָה הַגַּנָּב בָּא לֹא הָיָה מַנִיחַ אוֹתוֹ לַחְתֹּר בֵּיתוֹ וְאַתֶּם הֱיוּ מְעוּתָּדִים שֶׁבְּשָׁעָה שֶׁאַתֶּם לֹא סְבוּרִים בַּר אֱנָשׁ בָּא

“But know this: if the householder had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed him to break into his house. Also you, be prepared, because Bar Enash comes in an hour you do not expect.”^[74]

Reconstruction

To view the reconstructed text of Unexpected Thief click on the link below:

Conclusion

In Unexpected Thief Jesus compared the disciples’ ignorance of the timing of the Son of Man’s coming to a householder whose house was burgled because he did not know when the thief would come. The householder was unprepared for the thief, but the disciples who know that the Son of Man is coming need not be caught unawares.

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• ^[1] Cf. Bundy, 362 §252. ↩
• ^[2] Cf. Davies-Allison, 3:385.

  Other sources, too, hint at the sandwiching of Unexpected Thief between the two parts of Faithful or Faithless Slave. In Revelation we read:

  ἰδοὺ ἔρχομαι ὡς κλέπτης. μακάριος ὁ γρηγορῶν καὶ τηρῶν τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ, ἵνα μὴ γυμνὸς περιπατῇ καὶ βλέπωσιν τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην αὐτοῦ

  Behold! I come like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his garment, so that he might not walk about naked and they might see his indecency. (Rev. 16:15)

  While “I come like a thief” sounds like Unexpected Thief, the blessing pronounced on the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes sounds like the command to keep one’s loins girded (Luke 12:35) and the blessings pronounced on the faithful slaves who stay awake (Luke 12:37) in Faithful or Faithless Slave (Part One).
  The combination of motifs from Unexpected Thief and Faithful or Faithless Slave (Part One) is also found in the Gospel of Thomas:

  Therefore I say: If the lord of the house knows that the thief is coming, he will stay awake before he comes and will not let him dig through into his house of his kingdom to carry away his goods. You then must watch for the world, gird up your loins with great strength lest the brigands find a way to come to you, because they will find the advantage which you expect. (Gos. Thom. §21 [ed. Guillaumont, 15-17]; cf. Gos. Thom. §103)

  In addition to the girding up of loins motif from Faithful or Faithless Slave (Part One), Gos. Thom. §21 may show influence from the Matthean version of Unexpected Thief (L7) by introducing the saying with “therefore” (= διὰ τοῦτο). Cf. Fleddermann, 632. ↩

• ^[3] Cf. Beare, Earliest, 217. ↩
• ^[4] For these figures, see LOY Excursus: Criteria for Distinguishing Type 1 from Type 2 Double Tradition Pericopae. ↩
• ^[5] See David Flusser, Die rabbinischen Gleichnisse und der Gleichniserzähler Jesus (Bern: Peter Lang, 1981), 88. ↩
• ^[6] Cf. Nolland, Luke, 2:699; Bovon, 2:235. ↩
• ^[7] A third objection that is sometimes raised is the denial that Jesus ever spoke of himself as the Son of Man. See Funk-Hoover, 252, 342. Given this a priori assumption, it follows that the application, at least, must be secondary. For our part, we deny the validity of this a priori assumption. A major reason for denying that the Son of Man is a title the early Christians projected back on to Jesus is the unpopularity of this title outside the Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels the title is quite common, in the Gospel of John it can still be found, but much less prominently. But in the rest of the New Testament and in subsequent Christian literature the title virtually disappears. ↩
• ^[8] See Flusser, Die rabbinischen Gleichnisse und der Gleichniserzähler Jesus, 88; Kloppenborg, 149-150; Luz, 3:216. ↩
• ^[9] Cf. Eta Linnemann, The Parables of Jesus: Introduction and Exposition (trans. John Sturdy [Gleichnisse Jesu, Einfuhrung und Auslegung, 1961]; London: SPCK, 1977), 135. ↩
• ^[10] Cf. Bundy, 362 §253; Wolter, 2:161; Fleddermann, 634. ↩
• ^[11] It is probably unwise to draw too sharp a distinction between the day of the Lord and the Lord’s coming, since in 1 Thessalonians a discussion of the Lord’s coming (1 Thess. 4:13-18) leads directly into the discussion that compares the day of the Lord to the coming of a thief in the night (1 Thess. 5:1-11). ↩
• ^[12] Cf. Bundy, 473 §385. ↩
• ^[13] Pace Plummer, Luke, 331. ↩
• ^[14] See McNeile, 357; Davies-Allison, 3:384; Fleddermann, 624. ↩
• ^[15] See Days of the Son of Man, Comment to L19. ↩
• ^[16] Cf. McNeile, 357; Fleddermann, 624. ↩
• ^[17] The difficulty of reverting Matthew’s wording in L1 to Hebrew is demonstrated in Delitzsch’s Hebrew New Testament, where he rendered ἐκεῖνο δὲ γινώσκετε (“But that thing you know...”) in Matt. 24:43 as וְאֶת זֹאת דְּעוּ (“And this know!”). Cf. MHNT: וְזֹאת דְּעוּ (“And this know!”). ↩
• ^[18] Pace Harnack, 32; Marshall, 538; Nolland, Luke, 2:702; idem, Matt., 995 n. 145; Bovon, 2:230. ↩
• ^[19] Cf. Gundry, Matt., 495; Davies-Allison, 3:384; Fleddermann, 624. ↩
• ^[20] This midrash on Prov. 19:2 plays on two senses of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul,” “desire”) and reads רַגְלַיִם (raglayim, “feet”) as though it were to be vocalized as רְגִילִים (r^egilim, “regular occurrences”). This explains why the example of a man having sexual relations with his wife in the time of her menstrual impurity was chosen. ↩
• ^[21] As Bauckham noted, Luke’s version of Unexpected Thief does not necessarily have a nighttime setting. See Richard Bauckham, “Synoptic Parousia Parables and the Apocalypse,” New Testament Studies 23.2 (1976): 162-176, esp. 166. ↩
• ^[22] See McNeile, 357; Harnack, 33; Fitzmyer, 2:989; Nolland, Luke, 2:699, 702; idem, Matt., 995 n. 145; Bovon, 2:230; Fleddermann, 624. ↩
• ^[23] Cf. Manson, Sayings, 116. ↩
• ^[24] Cf. Hagner, 2:720. ↩
• ^[25] Pace McNeile, 357; Fleddermann, 624. ↩
• ^[26] See Bauckham, “Synoptic Parousia Parables and the Apocalypse,” 166. Cf. C. H. Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom (rev. ed.; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1961), 133 n. 1; Gundry, Matt., 495; Luz, 3:217 n. 7. ↩
• ^[27] See Hatch-Redpath, 2:1170. ↩
• ^[28] In MT אֵי זֶה occurs in 1 Sam. 9:18; 1 Kgs. 13:12; 22:24; 2 Kgs. 3:8; Isa. 50:1; 66:1 (2xx); Jer. 6:16; Job 28:12, 20; 38:19 (2xx), 24; Eccl. 2:3; 11:6; Esth. 7:5; 2 Chr. 18:23. Apart from Job 38:24 and Esth. 7:5, the LXX translators rendered all these instances of אֵי זֶה as ποῖος. ↩
• ^[29] See Hatch-Redpath, 2:1493. ↩
• ^[30] Ibid. ↩
• ^[31] See Hatch-Redpath, 2:767. ↩
• ^[32] See Dos Santos, 38. ↩
• ^[33] See Metzger, 161-162. ↩
• ^[34] Pace Harnack, 33. ↩
• ^[35] See Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom, 133 n. 2; Bauckham, “Synoptic Parousia Parables and the Apocalypse,” 166; Catchpole, 57; Bovon, 2:230; Luz, 3:216; Fleddermann, 624. Cf. Davies-Allison, 3:384. ↩
• ^[36] See Marshall, 538. ↩
• ^[37] Cf. Gundry, Matt., 495; Nolland, Luke, 2:702; Luz, 3:216 n. 6. ↩
• ^[38] See Manson, Sayings, 116; Jeremias, Parables, 48 n. 1. ↩
• ^[39] Cf. Marshall, 538. ↩
• ^[40] Cf. Harnack, 33; Cadbury, Style, 179-180. ↩
• ^[41] See Davies-Allison, 3:384. Cf. Bovon, 2:230; Luz, 3:217 n. 7; Nolland, Matt., 995 n. 145; Fleddermann, 624. ↩
• ^[42] Matthew and Luke agree to use ἀφιέναι in the following DT verses: Matt. 6:12 ∥ Luke 11:4 (2xx); Matt. 7:4 ∥ Luke 6:42; Matt. 8:22 ∥ Luke 9:60; Matt. 12:32 (2xx) ∥ Luke 12:10 (2xx); Matt. 18:21 ∥ Luke 17:4; Matt. 23:38 ∥ Luke 13:35; Matt. 24:40 ∥ Luke 17:34; Matt. 24:41 ∥ Luke 17:35. See Lindsey, GCSG, 1:139-141. ↩
• ^[43] See Moulton-Geden, 133. ↩
• ^[44] Fleddermann (624) overlooked the significance of the distribution of ἀφιέναι in Luke-Acts. ↩
• ^[45] See Moulton-Geden, 244. ↩
• ^[46] Cf. Luz, 3:217 n. 7. ↩
• ^[47] Pace Bovon, 2:230. ↩
• ^[48] See Cadbury, Style, 179. ↩
• ^[49] Pace Fleddermann, 624. ↩
• ^[50] See Hatch-Redpath, 1:336. ↩
• ^[51] See Dos Santos, 72. ↩
• ^[52] See Plummer, Luke, 331; A. B. Bruce, 298; Manson, Sayings, 116; Beare, Matt., 476; Gundry, Matt., 495; Fitzmyer, 2:989; Davies-Allison, 3:384; Nolland, Luke, 2:702; idem, Matt., 995. ↩
• ^[53] See Shmuel Safrai, “Home and Family” (Safrai-Stern, 728-792), esp. 732. There Safrai notes that houses were built of stone where this was cheaply available. Such a location might be Chorazin or other villages surrounding the Sea of Galilee. The practice of building homes from mud brick on top of a course of field stones is attested in a rabbinic parable (Avot de-Rabbi Natan, Version A, §24 [ed. Schechter, 77]) similar to Jesus’ parable at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. See Houses on Rock and Sand, Comment to L28. ↩
• ^[54] See Luz, 3:219, esp. n. 35 and n. 36. ↩
• ^[55] Cf. Davies-Allison, 3:384; Fleddermann, 625. Pace Harnack, 33; Marshall, 538. ↩
• ^[56] See BDB, 369. ↩
• ^[57] The table below shows all of the instances of διὰ τοῦτο in the Gospel of Matthew and the synoptic parallels (if any):

  Matt. 6:25 DT = Luke 12:22 Matt. 12:27 DT = Luke 11:19 Matt. 12:31 TT (cf. Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10) Matt. 13:13 TT (cf. Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10) Matt. 13:52 U Matt. 14:2 TT (cf. Mark 6:16; Luke 9:9) Matt. 18:23 U Matt. 21:43 TT (cf. Mark 12:[--]; Luke 20:[--]) Matt. 23:34 DT = Luke 11:49 Matt. 24:44 DT (cf. Luke 12:40) Key: TT = pericope has parallels in all three Synoptic Gospels; DT = Lukan-Matthean pericope; U = verse unique to a particular Gospel; [--] = no corresponding word and/or verse

  ↩

• ^[58] Cf. Bundy, 473 §385; Jeremias, Parables, 48 n. 2; Marshall, 538-539; Gundry, Matt., 495; Nolland, Luke, 2:702; idem, Matt., 995; Bovon, 2:230; Luz, 3:216 n. 7; Fleddermann, 625. ↩
• ^[59] Pace Harnack, 33. ↩
• ^[60] See Hatch-Redpath, 1:564-565. ↩
• ^[61] In LXX ἕτοιμος occurs as the translation of נָכוֹן in Exod. 19:11, 15; 34:2; Josh. 8:4; 1 Kgdms. 26:4; 3 Kgdms. 2:45; Ps. 37[38]:18; 56[57]:8 (2xx); 92[93]:2; 107[108]:2; 111[112]:7; Hos. 6:3; Mic. 4:1. ↩
• ^[62] See Jastrow, 621-622. ↩
• ^[63] See Marshall, 539; Davies-Allison, 3:385 n. 82. ↩
• ^[64] There is no Hebrew term behind δοκεῖν in Job 1:21; 15:21; 20:7, 22; Prov. 2:10; 14:12; 16:25; 17:28; 26:12. ↩
• ^[65] For instance, δοκεῖν sometimes renders אִם טוֹב (’im ṭōv, “if it is good”; Esth. 1:19; 3:9; 5:4; 8:5) or אָמַר (’āmar, “say”; Prov. 28:24). ↩
• ^[66]

  Unexpected Thief
  Luke’s Version		Anthology’s Wording (Reconstructed)
  τοῦτο δὲ γινώσκετε ὅτι εἰ ᾔδει ὁ οἰκοδεσπότης ποίᾳ ὥρᾳ ὁ κλέπτης ἔρχεται οὐκ ἂν ἀφῆκεν διορυχθῆναι τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ καὶ ὑμεῖς γίνεσθε ἕτοιμοι ὅτι ᾗ ὥρᾳ οὐ δοκεῖτε ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἔρχεται		τοῦτο δὲ γινώσκετε ὅτι εἰ ᾔδει ὁ οἰκοδεσπότης ποίᾳ ὥρᾳ ὁ κλέπτης ἔρχεται οὐκ ἂν ἀφῆκεν διορυχθῆναι τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ καὶ ὑμεῖς γίνεσθε ἕτοιμοι ὅτι ᾗ ὥρᾳ οὐ δοκεῖτε ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἔρχεται
  Total Words:	34	Total Words:	34
  Total Words Identical to Anth.:	34	Total Words Taken Over in Luke:	34
  Percentage Identical to Anth.:	100.00%	Percentage of Anth. Represented in Luke:	100.00%

  ↩

• ^[67] Note that Martin (Syntax 1, 93 no. 26) found Luke’s version of Unexpected Thief to be a bit more like “translation” Greek than Matthew’s. ↩
• ^[68]

  Unexpected Thief
  Matthew’s Version		Anthology’s Wording (Reconstructed)
  ἐκεῖνο δὲ γινώσκετε ὅτι εἰ ᾔδει ὁ οἰκοδεσπότης ποίᾳ φυλακῇ ὁ κλέπτης ἔρχεται ἐγρηγόρησεν ἂν καὶ οὐκ ἂν εἴασεν διορυχθῆναι τὴν οἰκίαν αὐτοῦ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ὑμεῖς γίνεσθε ἕτοιμοι ὅτι ᾗ οὐ δοκεῖτε ὥρᾳ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἔρχεται		τοῦτο δὲ γινώσκετε ὅτι εἰ ᾔδει ὁ οἰκοδεσπότης ποίᾳ ὥρᾳ ὁ κλέπτης ἔρχεται οὐκ ἂν ἀφῆκεν διορυχθῆναι τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ καὶ ὑμεῖς γίνεσθε ἕτοιμοι ὅτι ᾗ ὥρᾳ οὐ δοκεῖτε ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἔρχεται
  Total Words:	39	Total Words:	34
  Total Words Identical to Anth.:	29	Total Words Taken Over in Matt.:	29
  Percentage Identical to Anth.:	74.36%	Percentage of Anth. Represented in Matt.:	85.29%

  ↩

• ^[69] See Jeremias, Parables, 49. Cf. Gundry, Matt., 495; Davies-Allison, 3:385. The argument is generally based on the pluperfect tense of the verb in L2 (ᾔδει [ēdei, “had known”]) and the aorist tense of the verbs in L4 (ἐγρηγόρησεν [egrēgorēsen, “he stayed awake”]) and L5 (Matt.: εἴασεν [eiasen, “he allowed”]; Luke: ἀφῆκεν [afēken, “he permitted”]). Jeremias had a habit of concretizing Jesus’ illustrations into actual events. In addition to supposing that Unexpected Thief referred to an actual burglary, he claimed that the Waiting Maidens parable described an actual wedding and that the Great Banquet parable described an actual banquet where guests declined the invitation. See Jeremias, Parables, 52, 171, 178-179. ↩
• ^[70] Cf. Beare, Matt., 476; Luz, 3:219; France, Matt., 942 n. 34. ↩
• ^[71] See Flusser, Die rabbinischen Gleichnisse und der Gleichniserzähler Jesus, 88. ↩
• ^[72] See Plummer, Luke, 331. ↩
• ^[73] For abbreviations and bibliographical references, see “Introduction to ‘The Life of Yeshua: A Suggested Reconstruction.’” ↩
• ^[74] This translation is a dynamic rendition of our reconstruction of the conjectured Hebrew source that stands behind the Greek of the Synoptic Gospels. It is not a translation of the Greek text of a canonical source. ↩