Summary: I do not think our culture needs to hear words encouraging us to ignore the Sabbath. Clearly we are in the entirely opposite place than the Jewish world of 2,000 years ago. What is the consequence? We are bound by our exhaustion, our stress and our love of our works. Jesus comes to free this woman from Satan's chains and evil spirits. I argue that if Jesus were around today, he would seek to free us from the chains that our lack of Sabbath structure imposes on us.
2025 add-on: A reflection on honor/shame
Note for 2028: I ended up, in 2025, preaching on being seen
Key words on healing
λυω (luo, "free"; 13.15;13:16): "...untie his ox; should not this woman...be set free." This word appears in two consecutive verses, however, we likely miss this. First because the English translators translate the word differently in verses 15 and 16. Second, it appears in a slightly more difficult form as λυθηναι in 13:16. The verb, which many of us know from all sorts of conjugation charts, means "to loose, to set free." Jesus makes a play on words here: You set free your animals; I set people free.
This passage puts this illness in terms of binding and releasing in two other places. We are told in verse 12 that Jesus απολελυθαι the woman. This word, essentially a linguistic sibling to λυω means "release." Jesus even says that the woman was in δεσμος (chains, 13:16; also used as verb in this sentence).
ανωρθωθι (from ανορθοω, "straighten", 13.13): "...she stood up straight" This verb comes from the prefix/preposition "ana" which means upright or again and the adjective "ortho" meaning straight. It simply means straighten up or restore. It is not an especially common word in the Bible, but it recalls the words from the book of Psalms: "The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down (146:8)." [Technical note: The Psalm translation is in a slightly different order.]
ασθενειας ("weakness," 13.11) This word does not necessarily mean crippled or hunched over. It simply means "frailty, weakness, want of strength." The ambiguity around her illness creates a potential for connection with this woman. It could be physical, it could be emotional, it could be spiritual, it could be communal. It is unclear if the spirit was causing her infirmity; or she simply has a spirit that could be described as frail. In the end, she will have multiple layers of healing
αγανακτων (aganakton, meaning "indignant", 13.14): "Indignant because Jesus..." The word here has its root in "agony." The people watching are in agony over Jesus performing a healing! How easy it is to get upset about mercy!
εθεραπεθσεν (from θεραπευω, "therapy", meaning "heal", 13.14): "healed" The word began in Greek by meaning service to the Gods; almost like worship! It became to mean, it seems, service that the Gods could render, namely, healing.
υποκριται (hypocrites, 13.15): This word came right into English! (The rough breathing mark over the υ means it is sounded hy.) The word literally means "down judge-er/answer-er." It comes from theater, where the person has to speak to the people from a different height than the others. It came then to mean someone who pretends.
Key words on healing
λυω (luo, "free"; 13.15;13:16): "...untie his ox; should not this woman...be set free." This word appears in two consecutive verses, however, we likely miss this. First because the English translators translate the word differently in verses 15 and 16. Second, it appears in a slightly more difficult form as λυθηναι in 13:16. The verb, which many of us know from all sorts of conjugation charts, means "to loose, to set free." Jesus makes a play on words here: You set free your animals; I set people free.
This passage puts this illness in terms of binding and releasing in two other places. We are told in verse 12 that Jesus απολελυθαι the woman. This word, essentially a linguistic sibling to λυω means "release." Jesus even says that the woman was in δεσμος (chains, 13:16; also used as verb in this sentence).
ανωρθωθι (from ανορθοω, "straighten", 13.13): "...she stood up straight" This verb comes from the prefix/preposition "ana" which means upright or again and the adjective "ortho" meaning straight. It simply means straighten up or restore. It is not an especially common word in the Bible, but it recalls the words from the book of Psalms: "The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down (146:8)." [Technical note: The Psalm translation is in a slightly different order.]
ασθενειας ("weakness," 13.11) This word does not necessarily mean crippled or hunched over. It simply means "frailty, weakness, want of strength." The ambiguity around her illness creates a potential for connection with this woman. It could be physical, it could be emotional, it could be spiritual, it could be communal. It is unclear if the spirit was causing her infirmity; or she simply has a spirit that could be described as frail. In the end, she will have multiple layers of healing
- Physical: She stands up
- Spiritual: She glorifies God
- Communal: She is called by name, by Jesus, in front of everyone (Child of Abraham) and restored to a place of honor.
παντελες (13.11): "could not straighten up at all..." The word builds "pan", meaning "all" and "teles" meaning complete together for a 1-2 punch, like a baseball announcer shouting "it could...go...all...the...way." The woman was bound up over herself so she did not have the power to stand up into her full measure.
Honor/Shame
καταισχύνω ("be put to shame", 13.17) Increasingly, I have tried to pay attention to words around shame and honor. First, this is a matter of understanding the biblical world, which was likely more of an honor-shame society than ours today. Shame, as opposed to guilt, is not necessarily the internal feeling of remorse, but the social embarrassment at reducing the social rank of one's family or clan. What mattered was not so much that your sin was forgiven, but that your social standing was restored. You can see how in many situations, Jesus' work of forgiveness and healing were intended to retore the person to community and in fact, a good status within that community, not simply to address the individual's failures or limitations.
Second, this has incredibly powerful missiological implications. (A good summary of the differences between honor-shame and guilt-innocence cultures can be found here -- the book this website references is a great read!) In the last 300+ years, as Western cultures have grown increasingly individualistic, we have tended to have more of a guilt-innocence paradigm for understanding life and therefore Scripture. This has meant that our understanding of atonement and salvation tends to be understood in terms of guilt and innocence. This category of thinking is unlikely an effective way to formulate and communicate the Gospel to shame-honor cultures. This may help explain the ineffectiveness of the Christian missionary efforts in Asian, Middle eastern and African cultures where honor-shame dynamics are more important than guilt-innocence. There has been an incredibly renewed interest among missionary movements to attend to the honor-shame (and power-fear) dynamics at work in the cultures where they work but also the Gospel narrative itself!
Third, I wonder if our culture may actually becoming more honor-shame as we worry less about abstract rules for moral conduct. We spend more time signaling our virtue to others rather than worrying about our own righteousness before God. But I also wonder if we are living a new world that is based on honor-shame but it is individualistic rather than communal.
Fourth -- least importantly -- there is some sense that "καταισχύνω" means disappoint.
- Hope does not put us to shame(καταισχύνω), because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5)
In this light, it is interesting to think that Jesus disappointed the leaders of the synagogue!
However, I think the better interpretation, within an honor-shame dynamic is to see that Jesus gives her honor and reduces their social rank by upstaging them.
Other words
διδασκων (didaskoon, participle meaning "teaching", 13:10) A reminder that Jesus is teaching on the sabbath. He continues teaching until the end. Perhaps a reminder that good teaching isn't just about content, but about transformation! (Also this is the last time Jesus is in a synagogue!)
χειρας ("hands", 13:13) Jesus touches her! A reminder that the word is embodied and incarnate. He speaks, but he also touches.
αγανακτων (aganakton, meaning "indignant", 13.14): "Indignant because Jesus..." The word here has its root in "agony." The people watching are in agony over Jesus performing a healing! How easy it is to get upset about mercy!
εθεραπεθσεν (from θεραπευω, "therapy", meaning "heal", 13.14): "healed" The word began in Greek by meaning service to the Gods; almost like worship! It became to mean, it seems, service that the Gods could render, namely, healing.
υποκριται (hypocrites, 13.15): This word came right into English! (The rough breathing mark over the υ means it is sounded hy.) The word literally means "down judge-er/answer-er." It comes from theater, where the person has to speak to the people from a different height than the others. It came then to mean someone who pretends.
I might also add something about δει...
Total breakdown of 13:11
και ιδου γυνη πνευμα εχουσα ασθενειας ετη δεκαοκτω και ην συγκυπτουσα και μη δυναμενη ανακυψαι εις το παντελες
NRSV Luke 13:11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.
The sentence begins with "και ", typical for a Greek sentence and essentially translatable by either "and" or a "period." It can also mean but, even, more, also, etc...
The next word is "ιδου " This word, like the Hebrew hennah means "pay attention!" It does not describe what happens in the narrative, but it is a direction for the reader.
"γυνη πνευμα εχουσα ασθενειας" Before we parse this, let's just stick in the word-for-word translations: "woman spirit having weakness." The specific cases (accusative verses genitive) help here, but one can probably deduce this reads: "a woman having a spirit of weakness." For modern readers we'd like to take out the word "having a spirit" and replace it with "illness" but this limits the connection we will make later when Jesus says that Satan had this woman bound.
The participle "εχουσα" looks like an aorist because it has an "s" toward the end, but this is a feminine marker! Sigh! How does one translate this participle? Because there is neither a "the" (definitive article) nor a helping verb anywhere near by, you can assume it is a circumstantial. If we then use the formula "A woman, under the circumstance of having, an ill spirit" we see we can toss out the formula and just roll with it, "A woman having a ill spirit."
"ετη δεκαοκτω" 18 years.
και ην συγκυπτουσα ; Here we come to a supplementary participle. You will come to love these because your brain in English already thinks this way. If you see a form of a "to-be" verb (ie, ην) next to a participle, you can read it like in English -- just stick in the basic translation of the words -- "The woman was bent over." This is the very complex way in Greek of forming the imperfect tense!
και μη δυναμενη ανακυψαι: This is a train wreck by Luke! He basically continues to leave the helping verb, here δυναμενη (to be able) as a participle. This means he must use "μη " for a negative instead of "ou" (all non indicative no-s should be μη and not ou). He then connects it with an aorist infinitive. Ouch. At the end of the day: "was not able to stand up"
εις το παντελες: This use of εις here basically makes the adjective, παντελες, an adverb because it now describes the action of standing up straight. The way Luke writes this little tidbit here though leaves a very poetic end to the sentence: "She was not able to stand up into completeness." Her not standing up had an impact in her life beyond simply being hunched over.
Total breakdown of 13:11
και ιδου γυνη πνευμα εχουσα ασθενειας ετη δεκαοκτω και ην συγκυπτουσα και μη δυναμενη ανακυψαι εις το παντελες
NRSV Luke 13:11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.
The sentence begins with "και ", typical for a Greek sentence and essentially translatable by either "and" or a "period." It can also mean but, even, more, also, etc...
The next word is "ιδου " This word, like the Hebrew hennah means "pay attention!" It does not describe what happens in the narrative, but it is a direction for the reader.
"γυνη πνευμα εχουσα ασθενειας" Before we parse this, let's just stick in the word-for-word translations: "woman spirit having weakness." The specific cases (accusative verses genitive) help here, but one can probably deduce this reads: "a woman having a spirit of weakness." For modern readers we'd like to take out the word "having a spirit" and replace it with "illness" but this limits the connection we will make later when Jesus says that Satan had this woman bound.
The participle "εχουσα" looks like an aorist because it has an "s" toward the end, but this is a feminine marker! Sigh! How does one translate this participle? Because there is neither a "the" (definitive article) nor a helping verb anywhere near by, you can assume it is a circumstantial. If we then use the formula "A woman, under the circumstance of having, an ill spirit" we see we can toss out the formula and just roll with it, "A woman having a ill spirit."
"ετη δεκαοκτω" 18 years.
και ην συγκυπτουσα ; Here we come to a supplementary participle. You will come to love these because your brain in English already thinks this way. If you see a form of a "to-be" verb (ie, ην) next to a participle, you can read it like in English -- just stick in the basic translation of the words -- "The woman was bent over." This is the very complex way in Greek of forming the imperfect tense!
και μη δυναμενη ανακυψαι: This is a train wreck by Luke! He basically continues to leave the helping verb, here δυναμενη (to be able) as a participle. This means he must use "μη " for a negative instead of "ou" (all non indicative no-s should be μη and not ou). He then connects it with an aorist infinitive. Ouch. At the end of the day: "was not able to stand up"
εις το παντελες: This use of εις here basically makes the adjective, παντελες, an adverb because it now describes the action of standing up straight. The way Luke writes this little tidbit here though leaves a very poetic end to the sentence: "She was not able to stand up into completeness." Her not standing up had an impact in her life beyond simply being hunched over.
