The Meaning of Luke 4:23 Explained

Luke 4:23

KJV: And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

YLT: And he said unto them, 'Certainly ye will say to me this simile, Physician, heal thyself; as great things as we heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country;'

Darby: And he said to them, Ye will surely say to me this parable, Physician, heal thyself; whatsoever we have heard has taken place in Capernaum do here also in thine own country.

ASV: And he said unto them, Doubtless ye will say unto me this parable, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done at Capernaum, do also here in thine own country.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

And  he said  unto  them,  Ye will  surely  say  unto me  this  proverb,  Physician,  heal  thyself:  whatsoever  we have heard  done  in  Capernaum,  do  also  here  in  thy  country. 

What does Luke 4:23 Mean?

Verse Meaning

Evidently Jesus had been ministering in Capernaum before this incident (cf. Luke 4:14-15). The accounts of Jesus in Nazareth in Matthew 13:53-58 and Mark 6:1-6 also follow instances of His doing miracles in Capernaum ( Matthew 4:13; Mark 1:21-28). This has encouraged some interpreters to regard this passage in Luke as parallel to the others in Matthew and Mark , but this is probably incorrect. Jesus" decision to refrain from doing miracles in Nazareth apparently led some of the Nazarenes to question His ability to do them at all. This cast further doubt on His messiahship in their minds. They thought that if He was the Messiah He should bring blessing to Nazareth and do signs there too.

Context Summary

Luke 4:14-30 - "his Own Received Him Not"
A wide gap occurs here, embracing the important transactions of John 1:29-51; John 2:1-25; John 3:1-36; John 4:1-54.
What a flutter in Mary's heart when she saw her son sitting in the teacher's place of His native synagogue! How gratified at the reception given to the opening sentences! What a sword pierced her heart at the sudden revulsion of feeling! They were jealous that He performed only a few private miracles; but He could not do more because of their unbelief. See Mark 6:5.
Note that our Lord here sounded forth the silver trumpet of jubilee. Seizing on the imagery of the gladdest festival of Hebrew life, He likened Himself to a priest proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord. Not yet the day of vengeance! Compare Luke 4:19 with Isaiah 61:1-2. This is Christ's program for the present age. [source]

Chapter Summary: Luke 4

1  The fasting and temptation of Jesus
14  He begins to preach
16  The people of Nazareth marvel at words, but seek to kill him
33  He cures one possessed of a demon,
38  Peter's mother-in-law,
40  and various other sick persons
41  The demons acknowledge Jesus, and are reproved for it
42  He preaches through the cities of Galilee

Greek Commentary for Luke 4:23

Doubtless [παντως]
Adverb. Literally, at any rate, certainly, assuredly. Cf. Acts 21:22; Acts 28:4. [source]
This parable [την παραβολην ταυτην]
See discussion on Matthew 13. Here the word has a special application to a crisp proverb which involves a comparison. The word physician is the point of comparison. Luke the physician alone gives this saying of Jesus. The proverb means that the physician was expected to take his own medicine and to heal himself. The word παραβολη — parabolē in the N.T. is confined to the Synoptic Gospels except Hebrews 9:9; Hebrews 11:19. This use for a proverb occurs also in Luke 5:36; Luke 6:39. This proverb in various forms appears not only among the Jews, but in Euripides and Aeschylus among the Greeks, and in Cicero‘s Letters. Hobart quotes the same idea from Galen, and the Chinese used to demand it of their physicians. The point of the parable seems to be that the people were expecting him to make good his claim to the Messiahship by doing here in Nazareth what they had heard of his doing in Capernaum and elsewhere. “Establish your claims by direct evidence” (Easton). This same appeal (Vincent) was addressed to Christ on the Cross (Matthew 27:40, Matthew 27:42). There is a tone of sarcasm towards Jesus in both cases.Heard done (ηκουσαμεν γενομενα — ēkousamen genomena). The use of this second aorist middle participle γενομενα — genomena after ηκουσαμεν — ēkousamen is a neat Greek idiom. It is punctiliar action in indirect discourse after this verb of sensation or emotion (Robertson, Grammar, pp. 1040-42, 1122-24).Do also here Ingressive aorist active imperative. Do it here in thy own country and town and do it now. Jesus applies the proverb to himself as an interpretation of their real attitude towards himself. [source]
Heard done [ηκουσαμεν γενομενα]
The use of this second aorist middle participle γενομενα — genomena after ηκουσαμεν — ēkousamen is a neat Greek idiom. It is punctiliar action in indirect discourse after this verb of sensation or emotion (Robertson, Grammar, pp. 1040-42, 1122-24). [source]
Do also here [ποιησον και ωδε]
Ingressive aorist active imperative. Do it here in thy own country and town and do it now. Jesus applies the proverb to himself as an interpretation of their real attitude towards himself. [source]
Surely [πάντως]
Lit., by all means. Rev., doubtless, [source]
Proverb [παραβολὴν]
Rev., parable. See on Matthew 13:3. Wyc., likeness. [source]
Physician, heal thyself []
A saying which Luke alone recordsand which would forcibly appeal to him as a physician. Galen speaks of a physician who should have cured himself before he attempted to attend patients. The same appeal was addressed to Christ on the cross (Matthew 27:40, Matthew 27:42). [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Luke 4:23

Matthew 13:3 Parables [παραβολαῖς]
From παρά , beside, and βάλλω , to throw. A parable is a form of teaching in which one thing is thrown beside another. Hence its radical idea is comparison. Sir John Cheke renders biword, and the same idea is conveyed by the German Beispiela pattern or example; beibeside, and the old high German speldiscourse or narration. The word is used with a wide range in scripture, but always involves the idea of comparison:1.Of brief sayings, having an oracular or proverbial character. Thus Peter (Matthew 15:15), referring to the words “If the blind lead the blind,” etc., says, “declare unto us thisparable. ” Compare Luke 6:39. So of the patched garment (Luke 5:36), and the guest who assumes the highest place at the feast (Luke 14:7, Luke 14:11). Compare, also, Matthew 24:39; Mark 13:28.2.Of a proverb. The word for proverb ( παροιμία ) has the same idea at the root as parable. It is παρά , beside, οἶμος , a way or road. Either a trite, wayside saying (Trench), or a path by the side of the high road (Godet). See Luke 4:23; 1 Samuel 24:13. 3.Of a song or poem, in which an example is set up by way of comparison. See Micah 2:4; Habakkuk 2:6. -DIVIDER-
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4.Of a word or discourse which is enigmatical or obscure until the meaning is developed by application or comparison. It occurs along with the words αἴνιγμα , enigma, and πρόβλημα , a problem, something put forth or proposed ( πρό , in front βάλλω , to throw ). See Psalm 49:4 (Sept. 48:4); Psalm 78:2 (Sept. 77:2); Proverbs 1:6, where we have παραβολὴν , parable; σκοτεινὸν λόγον , dark saying; and αἰνίγματα , enigmas. Used also of the sayings of Balaam (Numbers 23:7, Numbers 23:18; Numbers 24:3, Numbers 24:15).In this sense Christ uses parables symbolically to expound the mysteries of the kingdom of God; as utterances which conceal from one class what they reveal to another (Matthew 13:11-17), and in which familiar facts of the earthly life are used figuratively to expound truths of the higher life. The un-spiritual do not link these facts of the natural life with those of the supernatural, which are not discerned by them (1 Corinthians 2:14), and therefore they need an interpreter of the relation between the two. Such symbols assume the existence of a law common to the natural and spiritual worlds under which the symbol and the thing symbolized alike work; so that the one does not merely resemble the other superficially, but stands in actual coherence and harmony with it. Christ formulates such a law in connection with the parables of the Talents and the Sower. “To him that hath shall be given. From him that hath not shall be taken away.” That is a law of morals and religion, as of business and agriculture. One must have in order to make. Interest requires capital. Fruit requires not only seed but soil. Spiritual fruitfulness requires an honest and good heart. Similarly, the law of growth as set forth in the parable of the Mustard Seed, is a law common to nature and to the kingdom of God. The great forces in both kingdoms are germinal, enwrapped in small seeds which unfold from within by an inherent power of growth.5. A parable is also an example or type; furnishing a model or a warning; as the Good Samaritan, the Rich Fool, the Pharisee and the Publican. The element of comparison enters here as between the particular incident imagined or recounted, and all cases of a similar kind.The term parable, however, as employed in ordinary Christian phraseology, is limited to those utterances of Christ which are marked by a complete figurative history or narrative. It is thus defined by Goebel (“Parables of Jesus”). “A narrative moving within the sphere of physical or human life, not professing to describe an event which actually took place, but expressly imagined for the purpose of representing, in pictorial figure, a truth belonging to the sphere of religion, and therefore referring to the relation of man or mankind to God.” In form the New Testament parables resemble the fable. The distinction between them does not turn on the respective use of rational and irrational beings speaking and acting. There are fables where the actors are human. Nor does the fable always deal with the impossible, since there are fables in which an animal, for instance, does nothing contrary to its nature. The distinction lies in the religious character of the New Testament parable as contrasted with the secular character of the fable. While the parable exhibits the relations of man to God, the fable teaches lessons of worldly policy or natural morality and utility. “The parable is predominantly symbolic; the fable, for the most part, typical, and therefore presents its teaching only in the form of example, for which reason it chooses animals by preference, not as symbolic, but as typical figures; never symbolic in the sense in which the parable mostly is, because the higher invisible world, of which the parable sees and exhibits the symbol in the visible world of nature and man, lies far from it. Hence the parable can never work with fantastic figures like speaking animals, trees,” etc. (Goebel, condensed). -DIVIDER-
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The parable differs from the allegory in that there is in the latter “an interpenetration of the thing signified and the thing signifying; the qualities and properties of the first being attributed to the last,” and the two being thus blended instead of being kept distinct and parallel. See, for example, the allegory of the Vine and the Branches (John 15) where Christ at once identifies himself with the figure' “I am the true vine.” Thus the allegory, unlike the parable, carries its own interpretation with it. -DIVIDER-
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Parable and proverb are often used interchangeably in the;New Testament; the fundamental conception being, as we have seen, the same in both, the same Hebrew word representing both, and both being enigmatical. They differ rather in extent than in essence; the parable being a proverb expanded and carried into detail, and being necessarily figurative, which the proverb is not; though the range of the proverb is wider, since the parable expands only one particular case of a proverb. (See Trench, “Notes on the Parables,” Introd.) [source]

John 10:6 Parable [παροιμίαν]
The word occurs but once outside of John's writings (2 Peter 2:22). The usual word for parable is παραβολή , which is once rendered proverb in the A.V. (Luke 4:23, changed to parable by Rev.), and which occurs nowhere in John. For the distinction see on Matthew 13:3. [source]
John 10:6 This parable [ταυτην την παροιμιαν]
Old word for proverb from παρα — para (beside) and οιμος — oimos way, a wayside saying or saying by the way. As a proverb in N.T. in 2 Peter 2:22 (quotation from Proverbs 26:11), as a symbolic or figurative saying in John 16:25, John 16:29, as an allegory in John 10:6. Nowhere else in the N.T. Curiously enough in the N.T. παραβολη — parabolē occurs only in the Synoptics outside of Hebrews 9:9; Hebrews 11:19. Both are in the lxx. Παραβολη — Parabolē is used as a proverb (Luke 4:23) just as παροιμια — paroimia is in 2 Peter 2:22. Here clearly παροιμια — paroimia means an allegory which is one form of the parable. So there you are. Jesus spoke this παροιμια — paroimia to the Pharisees, “but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them” Second aorist active indicative of γινωσκω — ginōskō and note ην — ēn in indirect question as in John 2:25 and both the interrogative τινα — tina and the relative α — ha “Spake” (imperfect ελαλει — elalei) should be “Was speaking or had been speaking.” [source]
Acts 21:22 They will certainly hear [παντως ακουσονται]
Παντως — Pantōs is old adverb, by all means, altogether, wholly, certainly as here and Acts 28:4; Luke 4:23; 1 Corinthians 9:10. This future middle of ακουω — akouō is the usual form instead of ακουσω — akousō There was no way to conceal Paul‘s arrival nor was it wise to do so. B C and several cursives omit δει πλητος συνελτειν — dei plēthos sunelthein (The multitude must needs come together). [source]
Acts 28:4 No doubt [κρεμαμαι]
Literally, By all means, old adverb. Cf. Acts 21:22; Luke 4:23; 1 Corinthians 9:22. Only by Luke and Paul in the N.T. “They knew that he was a prisoner being taken to Rome on some grave charge, and inferred that the charge was murder” (Page). [source]
Acts 28:4 Hanging from his hand [kremamenon ek tēs cheiros autou)]
Vivid picture of the snake dangling from Paul‘s hand. Present middle participle of τηριακη — kremamai late form for κρεμαμενον εκ της χειρος αυτου — kremannumi to hang up, to suspend (cf. Galatians 3:13). No doubt (κρεμαμαι — pantōs). Literally, By all means, old adverb. Cf. Acts 21:22; Luke 4:23; 1 Corinthians 9:22. Only by Luke and Paul in the N.T. “They knew that he was a prisoner being taken to Rome on some grave charge, and inferred that the charge was murder” (Page). Though he hath escaped First aorist passive participle of παντως — diasōzō (same verb used in Acts 27:43, Acts 27:44; Acts 28:1), so-called concessive use of the participle (Robertson, Grammar, p. 1129). Yet Justice An abstraction personified like the Latin διασωζω — Justitia (Page). The natives speak of δικη — @Dikēn as a goddess, but we know nothing of such actual worship in Malta, though the Greeks worshipped abstractions as in Athens. Hath not suffered (Δικη — nouk eiasenn). Did not suffer. They look on Paul as a doomed man as good as dead. These people thought that calamity was proof of guilt, poor philosophy and worse theology. -DIVIDER-
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[source]

What do the individual words in Luke 4:23 mean?

And He said to them Surely you will say to Me the proverb this Physician heal yourself Whatsoever we have heard has been done in - Capernaum do also here in the hometown of You
Καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς Πάντως ἐρεῖτέ μοι τὴν παραβολὴν ταύτην Ἰατρέ θεράπευσον σεαυτόν ὅσα ἠκούσαμεν γενόμενα εἰς τὴν Καφαρναοὺμ ποίησον καὶ ὧδε ἐν τῇ πατρίδι σου

εἶπεν  He  said 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: λέγω  
Sense: to speak, say.
Πάντως  Surely 
Parse: Adverb
Root: πάντως  
Sense: altogether.
ἐρεῖτέ  you  will  say 
Parse: Verb, Future Indicative Active, 2nd Person Plural
Root: λέγω  
Sense: to utter, speak, say.
μοι  to  Me 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Dative 1st Person Singular
Root: ἐγώ  
Sense: I, me, my.
παραβολὴν  proverb 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular
Root: παραβολή  
Sense: a placing of one thing by the side of another, juxtaposition, as of ships in battle.
ταύτην  this 
Parse: Demonstrative Pronoun, Accusative Feminine Singular
Root: οὗτος  
Sense: this.
Ἰατρέ  Physician 
Parse: Noun, Vocative Masculine Singular
Root: ἰατρός  
Sense: a physician.
θεράπευσον  heal 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Imperative Active, 2nd Person Singular
Root: θεραπεύω  
Sense: to serve, do service.
σεαυτόν  yourself 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Accusative Masculine 2nd Person Singular
Root: σεαυτοῦ  
Sense: thyself, thee.
ὅσα  Whatsoever 
Parse: Personal / Relative Pronoun, Accusative Neuter Plural
Root: ὅσος  
Sense: as great as, as far as, how much, how many, whoever.
ἠκούσαμεν  we  have  heard 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Active, 1st Person Plural
Root: ἀκουστός 
Sense: to be endowed with the faculty of hearing, not deaf.
γενόμενα  has  been  done 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Participle Middle, Accusative Neuter Plural
Root: γίνομαι  
Sense: to become, i.
τὴν  - 
Parse: Article, Accusative Feminine Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
Καφαρναοὺμ  Capernaum 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular
Root: Καπερναούμ 
Sense: a flourishing city of Galilee situated on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee or Lake of Gennesaret, near the place where the Jordan flows into the lake.
καὶ  also 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: καί  
Sense: and, also, even, indeed, but.
ὧδε  here 
Parse: Adverb
Root: ὧδε  
Sense: here, to this place, etc.
πατρίδι  hometown 
Parse: Noun, Dative Feminine Singular
Root: πατρίς  
Sense: one’s native country.
σου  of  You 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive 2nd Person Singular
Root: σύ  
Sense: you.