Preparing Context
Loading the book, timeline, map, and study notes.
Book
World Stage
Structure
Historical Setting
Opening Book
Loading the overview, historical setting, map, timeline, and chapter structure.
Book
World Stage
Structure
Historical Setting
Opening Chapter
Loading the chapter, structure, timeline, and Scripture reader.
Book
World Stage
Structure
Historical Setting
Opening Passage
Loading the passage, surrounding structure, questions, and study notes.
Book
World Stage
Structure
Historical Setting
Luke 18:1-8
Jesus opens with a parable that models sustained pleading, then draws a greater-to-lesser point about God answering and faith enduring.
Meaning in context
Jesus states the aim: ongoing prayer without becoming discouraged.
A judge is described as lacking reverence for God and regard for people. A widow repeatedly asks, using avenge, for legal vindication against her adversary.
After refusing “for a time,” the judge decides to grant her justice, not from virtue but to stop her continual coming.
Jesus points to what the judge “said” (compare said): if even an unjust judge acts under pressure, God will certainly act for those who cry out day and night, even amid apparent delay.
Jesus promises decisive vindication and closes with a question about whether persistence will endure until the Son of Man comes.
Section 1 of 6
The widow, the judge, and persistence
Jesus opens with a parable that models sustained pleading, then draws a greater-to-lesser point about God answering and faith enduring.
Movement
Salvation for all peoples
Artifact
Orderly account and mission to outsiders
Biblical Timeline
Jesus' Ministry
Luke context: AD 29 - AD 33
Biblical Timeline
Jesus' Ministry
Luke context
Jesus' Ministry / AD 29 - AD 33
Luke context is set in Jesus' ministry, where Jesus' public ministry, teaching, signs, death, and resurrection.
Scripture Text
Thesis
Jesus opens with a parable that models sustained pleading, then draws a greater-to-lesser point about God answering and faith enduring.
Plain Meaning
Jesus states the aim: ongoing prayer without becoming discouraged.
A judge is described as lacking reverence for God and regard for people. A widow repeatedly asks, using avenge, for legal vindication against her adversary.
After refusing “for a time,” the judge decides to grant her justice, not from virtue but to stop her continual coming.
Jesus points to what the judge “said” (compare said): if even an unjust judge acts under pressure, God will certainly act for those who cry out day and night, even amid apparent delay.
Jesus promises decisive vindication and closes with a question about whether persistence will endure until the Son of Man comes.
Literary Context
This parable appears in Luke’s long travel narrative toward Jerusalem, where Jesus teaches about watchfulness, perseverance, and life amid delay. It follows teaching on the Son of Man’s future revealing (Luke 17) and precedes another prayer-related scene (the Pharisee and the tax collector, Luke 18:9–14). Luke signals the purpose at the outset: to pray and not lose heart, and the closing question ties prayerful endurance to the awaited coming.
Historical Context
The setting assumes ordinary village or town legal realities under Roman-era administration. Widows were often economically and socially vulnerable, and petitioning a local judge could require repeated public appeals. Judges could be negligent or corrupt, and persistence was sometimes the only leverage available to someone without status or patronage. The mention of an “adversary” suggests a concrete dispute needing legal protection or enforcement.
Theological Significance
Generation error: Invalid section exegesis base: more than 1 lex shortcodes were generated
Keep Studying
avenge (ekdikēsō)