Section 9:37–43a
Jesus expelled an evil spirit from a boy
Earlier Jesus had given power to his twelve apostles to cast out demons (9:1). However, after Jesus came down from the mountain with Peter, James, and John, he heard that the other disciples had not been able to make an evil spirit leave a man’s son. When the boy approached Jesus, the unclean spirit caused the boy to convulse violently. Then Jesus cast out the unclean spirit, and the people were filled with awe.
Some other examples of headings for this section are:
The Healing of a Boy with an Evil Spirit (New International Version)
-or-
Jesus Heals a Boy with an Evil Spirit (Good News Translation)
There are parallel passages for this section in Matthew 17:14–21 and Mark 9:14–29.
Paragraph 9:37–40
9:37a
In Greek, 9:37 starts with the phrase “And it happened that.” While versions such as the New Jerusalem Bible include this phrase, most English versions omit it. Luke used this phrase to introduce a new event that took place the day after the events in the previous section.
The next day, when they came down from the mountain: Apparently Jesus and the three disciples spent the night on the mountain. In the morning, they went down. Since a new section begins here, consider whether it is natural in your language to make explicit to whom the word they refers. For example:
The next day Jesus and his three disciples came down from the mountain (Contemporary English Version)
In the next clause (9:37b), the focus is on Jesus, not on the three disciples. In some languages it may be more natural to keep Jesus as the subject of 9:37a. For example:
On the following day, Jesus descended the mountain along with his three disciples.
9:37b
Jesus was met by a large crowd: In order to introduce the action in the following verses, Luke describes here how many people came to meet Jesus at the bottom of the mountain. While the Berean Standard Bible translates this as a passive clause, in Greek it is active, literally “a large crowd met him.” The other English versions translate this as an active clause, and it may be natural for you to translate it that way in your language.
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