Luke 12 - Indepthbible.org

2588 2589wear. 12.33 For the life is more (than) the nourishment, and the body (is more than) the2586(...continued)Fitzmyer notes that "The verb me,rimnan means to 'take anxious thought,' but it alsoconnotes exertion and the putting forth of effort...Yet the basic idea of worry cannot be glossedover." (2, p. 978)See Rudolph Bultmann's article on this verb in Theological Dictionary of the NewTestament 4, pp. 589-93, where he states that the New Testament "realizes that human life isswayed by care. The exhortations not to worry presuppose that every man naturally cares forhimself and his life, that he is concerned about himself, that he is always intent on something andconcerned about something. This is by no means ruled out as illegitimate. Indeed, it is acceptedthat man is concerned about himself and that he strives after things. But the why and whereforeof his concern and striving are given a new orientation, and so, too, is his understanding ofhimself and his life...“To anxiety concerning food and clothing, or the biwtika, [‘things having to do with themeans of life’], is opposed concern for the basilei,a tou/ qeou/ [the ‘Kingdom of the God’], to carefor ta. tou/ ko,smou [‘the things of the world’], concern for ta. tou/ kuri,ou [‘the things of theLord’]...Man is given to understand that he must not believe that he can secure his life by hisme,rimnan [‘worrying’]...lf he is genuinely concerned about himself, he must strive after thebasilei,a tou/ qeou [‘Kingdom of the God’] and care for ta. tou/ kuri,ou [‘the things of the Lord’]...“This means...that he must realize not merely that he does not draw his life from thispresent world but also that if, in self-concern, he cares for the things of this world, he will fallvictim to this world. For his life is in fact controlled by that for which, about which, after which,before which and concerning which he cares...lf he is genuinely a believer, he no longer belongsto this world. He belongs to the world to come. Hence he must strive after this future world...Thebeliever is thus released from me,rimna [worries]...The man who is concerned about himself, andwho tries to find security in the means of life, is shown that he must make the lordship of God hisfirst concern, and then anxiety about his life will wither away."Marshall comments on the way that Jesus brings together yuch, "life,” and sw/ma, "body," inthis passage, that "The object of anxious concern is the provision of food in order to support lifeand of clothing in order to keep the body warm and alive. Yuch, and sw/ma accordingly stand inparallelism rather than in opposition to each other..." (P. 526) That means that there is no"dualism" here, contrasting yuch, and sw/ma as in much Greek thought. The person is acombination of body and spirit, of inner and outer (as is common throughout the Bible).2587The genitive plural possessive pronoun u`mw/n, "of you people," is interpolated into thetext at this point by Vaticanus, Uncial Manuscript 070, Family 13 of Minuscules, Minuscules33, 1424, some other Greek manuscripts, the Old Latin Manuscript a, some manuscripts of theLatin Vulgate, the Peshitta Syriac and Clement of Alexandria (in part; who died before 215 A.D.).Whether read or not makes no difference for the meaning of Luke.1253