Cataloging the Gospels’ Hebraisms: Part One (Luke 10:23-24)

Revised: 20-Jun-2014

The most frequent request we receive from readers is: “Have you published a list of Hebraism you assume are embedded in the Greek texts of the Gospels?” Hebrew idioms leap out from every page of Jesus’ life story, and I began cataloging them years ago. I discussed a number of them in the Appendix to Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus,^[2]  for example: “bring out your name bad” (pp. 115-117), “the appearance of his face was altered” (pp. 117-119), “lay these things in your ears” (pp. 119-123), and “he set his face to go” (pp. 123-126).

Many additional gospel Hebraisms were discussed in the 56 issues of Jerusalem Perspective magazine, published between 1987 and 1999. See, for example, my “Hebrew Idioms in the Gospels” (JP 22 [Sept.-Oct. 1989]: 6-7); “Hendiadys in the Synoptic Gospels” (JP 52 [Jul.-Sept. 1997]: pp. 14-15) and “Noun Chains in the Gospels” (JP 55 [Apr.-June 1999]: pp. 15-17).

For those who enjoy the study of Hebrew idioms, may I recommend that you begin with Pieter Lechner’s excellent tutorial, “Significance of Idioms.”

In this article, let us consider the Hebraisms found in Luke 10:23-24 (parallel to Matthew 13:16-17).

• ^[1] Robert L. Lindsey, “‘Verily’ or ‘Amen’: What Did Jesus Say?” Christian News from Israel 25.3 (1975): 144-48. Cf. David Bivin, “Jesus’ Use of ‘Amen’: Introduction or Response?” ↩
• ^[2] David Bivin and Roy B. Blizzard, Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus (2nd ed.; Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 1994). ↩