The Meaning of Luke 10:17 Explained

Luke 10:17

KJV: And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

YLT: And the seventy turned back with joy, saying, 'Sir, and the demons are being subjected to us in thy name;'

Darby: And the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us through thy name.

ASV: And the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in thy name.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

And  the seventy  returned again  with  joy,  saying,  Lord,  even  the devils  are subject  unto us  through  thy  name. 

What does Luke 10:17 Mean?

Verse Meaning

These disciples undoubtedly experienced the same opposition and rejection that Jesus did, but their overwhelming sentiment was joy (Gr. charas). They had experienced supernatural enablement and power because they trusted and obeyed the Lord (cf. Luke 9:1; Matthew 10:8). They quite naturally rejoiced, especially in the spectacular display of God"s power evident in their control of demons. Jesus exorcized demons with a command, but His disciples had to command demons in Jesus" name, namely, on the basis of His authority.

Context Summary

Luke 10:17-24 - The Sources Of Deepest Joy
How triumphant the return of the evangelist! With faces flushed with pride and hearts high with elation, they returned to the Master with their reports. What wisdom it is to talk our work over with Jesus! Even the demons were subject to His Name. He was not surprised. While He had been watching, bearing them up by His intercessions, He had seen an alteration take place in the unseen world. Satan had fallen, as though the work done by these humble men had turned the scale against him. Is it not so still? What we do is of eternal importance.
Then, "in that same hour" it seemed as though the flood-gates of the Savior's soul were flung open for very joy. He rejoiced that babe-like hearts might know the deep things of God; that all things were opened to Him in His humanity as in the ages before He became man; and that He was permitted to reveal the Father to those who loved and obeyed Him. It was for these, and for us, to know things hidden from prophets and kings. [source]

Chapter Summary: Luke 10

1  Jesus sends out at once seventy disciples to work miracles, and to preach;
13  pronounces a woe against certain cities
17  The seventy return with joy;
18  he shows them wherein to rejoice,
21  and thanks his Father for his grace;
23  magnifies the happy estate of his church;
25  teaches the lawyer how to attain eternal life,
30  and tells the parable of the good Samaritan;
38  reprimands Martha, and commends Mary her sister

Greek Commentary for Luke 10:17

Returned with joy [υπεστρεπσαν μετα χαρας]
They had profited by the directions of Jesus. Joy overflows their faces and their words. [source]
Even the demons [και τα δαιμονια]
This was a real test. The Twelve had been expressly endowed with this power when they were sent out (Luke 9:1), but the Seventy were only told to heal the sick (Luke 10:9). It was better than they expected. The Gospel worked wonders and they were happy. The demons were merely one sign of the conflict between Christ and Satan. Every preacher has to grapple with demons in his work.Are subject (υποτασσεται — hupotassetai). Present passive indicative (repetition). [source]
Are subject [υποτασσεται]
Present passive indicative (repetition). [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Luke 10:17

Mark 1:34 Devils [δαιμόνια]
The Rev., unfortunately, and against the protest of the American committee, retains devils instead of rendering demons. See on Matthew 4:1. The New Testament uses two kindred words to denote the evil spirits which possessed men, and which were so often east out by Christ: διάμων , of which demon is a transcript, and which occurs, according to the best texts, only at Matthew 8:31; and δαιμόνιον , which is not a diminutive, but the neuter of the adjective δαιμόνιος ,of, or belonging to a demon. The cognate verb is δαιμονίζομαι to be possessed with a demon, as in Mark 1:32. The derivation of the word is uncertain. Perhaps δαίω , to distribute, since the deities allot the fates of men. Plato derives it from δαήμων , knowing or wise. In Hesiod, as in Pythagoras, Thales, and Plutarch, the word δαίμων is used of men of the golden age, acting as tutelary deities, and forming the link between gods and men. Socrates, in Plato's “Cratylus,” quotes Hesiod as follows: “Socrates: You know how Hesiod uses the word? Hermogenes: Indeed I do not. Soc.: Do you not remember that he speaks of a golden race of men who came first? Her.: Yes, I know that. Soc.: He says of them,But now that fate has closed over this race,They are holy demons upon earth,Beneficent, averters of ills, guardians of mortal men.'”After some further conversation, Socrates goes on: “And therefore I have the most entire conviction that he called them demons, because they were δαήμονες (knowing or wise )Now, he and other poets say truly that, when a good man dies, he has honor and a mighty portion among the dead, and becomes a demon, which is a name given to him signifying wisdom. And I say, too, that every wise man who happens to be a good man is more than human ( δαιμόνιον ) both in life and death, and is rightly called a demon.” Mr. Grote (“History of Greece”) observes that in Hesiod demons are “invisible tenants of the earth, remnants of the once happy golden race whom the Olympic gods first made - the unseen police of the gods, for the purpose of repressing wicked behavior in the world.” In later Greek the word came to be used of any departed soul. In Homer δαίμων is used synonymously with θεός and θεά , god and goddess, and the moral quality of the divinity is determined by the context: but most commonly of the divine power or agency, like the Latin numen, the deity considered as a power rather than as a person. Homer does not use δαιμόνιον substantively, but as an adjective, always in the vocative case, and with a sorrowful or reproachful sense, indicating that the person addressed is in some astonishing or strange condition. Therefore, as a term of reproach - wretch! sirrah! madman! (“Iliad,” 2:190,200; 4:31; ix., 40). Occasionally in an admiring or respectful sense (“Odyssey,” xiv., 443; xxiii., 174); Excellent stranger! noble sir! Homer also uses δαίμων of one's genius or attendant spirit, and thence of one's lot orfortune. So in the beautiful simile of the sick father (“Odyssey,” 5:396), “Some malignant genius has assailed him.” Compare “Odyssey,” x., 64; xi., 61. Hence, later, the phrase κατὰ δαίμονα is nearly equivalent to by chance. We have seen that, in Homer, the bad sense of δαιμόνοις is the prevailing one. In the tragedians, also, δαίμων , though used both of good and bad fortune, occurs more frequently in the latter sense, and toward this sense the word gravitates more and more. The undertone of Greek thought, which tended to regard no man happy until he had escaped from life (see on Matthew 5:3, blessed )naturally imparted a gloomy and forbidding character to those who were supposed to allot the destinies of life. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
In classical Greek it is noticeable that the abstract τὸ δαιμόνιον fell into the background behind δαίμων , with the development in the latter of the notion of a fate or genius connected with each individual, as the demon of Socrates; while in biblical Greek the process is the reverse, this doctrine being rejected for that of an overruling personal providence, and the strange gods, “obscure to human knowledge and alien to human life,” taking the abstract term uniformly in an evil sense. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
Empedocles, a Greek philosopher, of Sicily, developed Hesiod's distinction; making the demons of a mixed nature between gods and men, not only the link between the two, but having an agency and disposition of their own; not immortal, but long-lived, and subject to the passions and propensities of men. While in Hesiod the demons are all good, according to Empedocles they are both bad and good. This conception relieved the gods of the responsibility for proceedings unbecoming the divine nature. The enormities which the older myths ascribed directly to the gods - thefts, rapes, abductions - were the doings of bad demons. It also saved the credit of the old legends, obviating the necessity of pronouncing either that the gods were unworthy or the legends untrue. “Yet, though devised for the purpose of satisfying a more scrupulous religious sensibility, it was found inconvenient afterward when assailants arose against paganism generally. For while it abandoned as indefensible a large portion of what had once been genuine faith, it still retained the same word demons with an entirely altered signification. The Christian writers in their controversies found ample warrant among the earlier pagan authors for treating all the gods as demons; and not less ample warrant among the later pagans for denouncing the demons generally as evil beings” (Grote, “History of Greece”). -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
This evil sense the words always bear in the New Testament as well as in the Septuagint. Demons are synonymous with unclean spirits (Mark 5:12, Mark 5:15; Mark 3:22, Mark 3:30; Luke 4:33). They appear in connection with Satan (Luke 10:17, Luke 10:18; Luke 11:18, Luke 11:19); they are put in opposition to the Lord (1 Corinthians 10:20, 1 Corinthians 10:21); to the faith (1 Timothy 4:1). They are connected with idolatry (Revelation 9:20; Revelation 16:13, Revelation 16:14). They are special powers of evil, influencing and disturbing the physical, mental, and moral being (Luke 13:11, Luke 13:16; Mark 5:2-5; Mark 7:25; Matthew 12:45). -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
[source]

Acts 3:6 In the name [εν τωι ονοματι]
The healing power is in that name (Page) and Peter says so. Cf. Luke 9:49; Luke 10:17; Acts 4:7, Acts 4:10; Acts 19:27; Acts 16:18. [source]
James 4:7 But resist the devil [antistēte de tōi diabolōi)]
Second aorist (ingressive) active (intransitive) imperative of anthistēmi “take a stand against.” Dative case diabolōi Result of such a stand is that the devil will flee See 1 Peter 5:8.; Ephesians 6:11.; Luke 10:17. [source]

What do the individual words in Luke 10:17 mean?

Returned then the seventy two with joy saying Lord even the demons are subject to us through the name of You
Ὑπέστρεψαν δὲ οἱ ἑβδομήκοντα ‹δύο› μετὰ χαρᾶς λέγοντες Κύριε καὶ τὰ δαιμόνια ὑποτάσσεται ἡμῖν ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί σου

Ὑπέστρεψαν  Returned 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Active, 3rd Person Plural
Root: ὑποστρέφω  
Sense: to turn back.
ἑβδομήκοντα  seventy 
Parse: Adjective, Nominative Masculine Plural
Root: ἑβδομήκοντα  
Sense: seventy.
‹δύο›  two 
Parse: Adjective, Nominative Masculine Plural
Root: δύο 
Sense: the two, the twain.
χαρᾶς  joy 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Feminine Singular
Root: χαρά  
Sense: joy, gladness.
λέγοντες  saying 
Parse: Verb, Present Participle Active, Nominative Masculine Plural
Root: λέγω 
Sense: to say, to speak.
Κύριε  Lord 
Parse: Noun, Vocative Masculine Singular
Root: κύριος  
Sense: he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord.
καὶ  even 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: καί  
Sense: and, also, even, indeed, but.
δαιμόνια  demons 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Neuter Plural
Root: δαιμόνιον  
Sense: the divine power, deity, divinity.
ὑποτάσσεται  are  subject 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Middle or Passive, 3rd Person Singular
Root: ὑποτάσσω  
Sense: to arrange under, to subordinate.
ἡμῖν  to  us 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Dative 1st Person Plural
Root: ἐγώ  
Sense: I, me, my.
ἐν  through 
Parse: Preposition
Root: ἐν 
Sense: in, by, with etc.
ὀνόματί  name 
Parse: Noun, Dative Neuter Singular
Root: ὄνομα  
Sense: name: univ.
σου  of  You 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive 2nd Person Singular
Root: σύ  
Sense: you.

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