Luke 23:31:- “For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?”
What do the “green wood”, and the “dry” one indicate?
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Sign up to join this communityLuke 23:31:- “For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?”
What do the “green wood”, and the “dry” one indicate?
Luke 23:31:- “For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?”
What do the “green wood”, and the “dry” one indicate?
Both indicate the temple. The “green wood” symbolizes the physical body of Christ which in turn symbolizes the temple of God. The "dry" symbolizes the physical Jerusalem temple.
Jesus was on his way to be crucified, Luke 23:
26 As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 27A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.
Jesus warned the women of bad things would come upon them and their kids. Thirty-some years later, Rome would burn the city of Jerusalem and the temple.
31For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
A green tree is not so easily set on fire. Jesus didn't commit any crime. Despite Pilate's reluctance to execute him, he was about to be crucified. They were about to hang Jesus' body on a tree. Jesus' body symbolizes the temple of God.
A dry tree can be set on fire easily. The dry tree symbolizes the Jerusalem temple. It had not been producing good fruit because it was dry. Rome would come and burn the city of Jerusalem and its temple for its rebellion.
A green tree is healthy and full of life as opposed to a dry tree that is dead and withered. A green tree is very hard to burn, while a dry tree burns very easily.
Jesus was saying that if these things were happening to Him, then how much worse would it be for those who were unjustly condemning Him.
If an innocent person were being treated this way, how would the corrupt and guilty be treated? A passage with similar meaning was spoken by the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 4:17.
1 PETER 4:17 For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
Apparently, this was a proverb using green wood and dry wood. Green wood for the innocent and dry wood for the guilty. Apparently, the idea is taken from dry wood burning easier than green wood. Dry wood breaks rather than bends like green wood, but this apparently isn't the reference.
With the context of the Crucifixion versus the destruction of Jerusalem meant if these bad things are happening to the innocent, Jesus Christ, how much worse will the Romans be when they destroy Jerusalem.
Some commentators took this in a more general sense.
Quotes from the Commentaries
It follows, But if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
GREGORY. (Mor. 12. c. 4) He has called Himself the green wood and us the dry, for He has in Himself the life and strength of the Divine nature; but we who are mere men are called the dry wood.
THEOPHYLACT. As though He said to the Jews, If then the Romans have so raged against Me, a fruit-bearing and ever flourishing tree, what will they not attempt against you the people, who are a dry tree, destitute of every lifegiving virtue, and bearing no fruit?
BEDE. Or as if He spake to all: If I who have done no sin being called the tree of life, do not depart from the world without suffering the fire of my Passion, what torment think ye awaits those who are barren of all fruits?
THEOPHYLACT. But the Devil, desiring to engender an evil opinion of our Lord, caused robbers also to be crucified with Him; whence it follows, And there were two other malefactors led with him to be put to death.
Thomas Aquinas. (1843). Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St. Luke. (J. H. Newman, Ed.) (Vol. 3, p. 748). Oxford: John Henry Parker.
In the green tree (ἐν ὑγρῳ ξυλῳ [en hugrōi xulōi]). Green wood is hard to burn and so is used for the innocent. In the dry (ἐν τῳ ξηρῳ [en tōi xērōi]). Dry wood kindles easily and is a symbol for the guilty. This common proverb has various applications. Here the point is that if they can put Jesus to death, being who he is, what will happen to Jerusalem when its day of judgment comes? What shall be done (τι γενηται [ti genētai]). Deliberative subjunctive. -- Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Lk 23:31). Nashville, TN: Broadman Press.
23:31. Unlike a green one, a dry tree would easily catch fire. The point may be that Jesus is “green” wood, not really a revolutionary; how much greater would be the Roman judgment against the dry wood, the real revolutionaries? Or that if they murdered the innocent, how much more would they destroy themselves (the Jewish leaders fought one another as well as the Romans in 66–70)? Or the saying may simply mean that Jerusalem is becoming more ripe for judgment. Jesus may also allude back to the trees and Jerusalem’s fall in 21:24, 29–30, though this option is less likely. -- Keener, C. S. (1993). The IVP Bible background commentary: New Testament (Lk 23:31). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Vs. 31. For if they do these things to the green wood.—So long as the enemy at his incursion into a land spares the green wood, he will, perhaps, even refrain from destroying the dry; but if he does not even spare the fruitful, how should he not deny compassion to the unfruitful? The image, sufficiently intelligible of itself, is probably taken from Ezekiel 20:47, and places the fate of the innocent Saviour as a prophecy of evil over against that of the guilty Israel. We have here not the contrast between young and old (Bengel), and as little the continuation of the exclamation of the despairing women themselves, vs. 30 (Baumgarten-Crusius), who, he supposes, from the fate which comes upon themselves as guiltless, now make inference as to the lot of the guilty; but, on the other hand, a pathetic allusion of our Lord Himself to that which even now is coming upon Him, in which this is given to the women as the standard according to which they were to measure the fate impending over themselves. Comp. Jer. 49:12; Prov. 11:31; 1 Peter 4:17, 18. Εἰ ταῦτα ποιοῦσιν, He does not even say what, in order not to agitate the souls of the women yet more deeply; they were themselves to see it in the moments next succeeding; ποιοῦσιν, Impersonally; it designates neither the Jews nor the Romans alone, but is an indefinite expression of what is here to be accomplished by human hands. -- Lange, J. P., & van Oosterzee, J. J. (2008). A commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Luke. (P. Schaff & C. C. Starbuck, Trans.) (p. 370). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
“Sow for yourselves according to righteousness, reap according to mercy, break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Adonai” (v. 12). In other words, repent, return to God. The advice is sound for all eras, as much in our own day as in Yeshua’s or Hosea’s, especially in the light of v. 31 of our present text, which says that if such terrible things happen when the wood is green and cannot burn well, that is, on the day when innocent Yeshua is put to death as a criminal, how much worse it will become as the years pass and resentment of the Messiah and his followers hardens (especially when that resentment is inflamed by evil deeds done in the Messiah’s name by those claiming to be his followers). -- Stern, D. H. (1996). Jewish New Testament Commentary : a companion volume to the Jewish New Testament (electronic ed., Lk 23:30). Clarksville: Jewish New Testament Publications.
Jesus may be repeating a proverb. The idea seems clear enough: If innocence meets such a fate, what will be in store for the guilty?32. Cf. Is 53:12. -- Brown, R. E., Fitzmyer, J. A., & Murphy, R. E. (1996). The Jerome Biblical commentary (Vol. 2, p. 161). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
23:31 Then the Lord Jesus added the words, “For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?” He Himself was the green tree, and unbelieving Israel was the dry. If the Romans heaped such shame and suffering on the sinless, innocent Son of God, what dreadful punishment would fall on the guilty murderers of God’s beloved Son? -- MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments. (A. Farstad, Ed.) (p. 1455). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
Fire spreads much more rapidly through a dry forest than through a wet one; so Jesus’ words in v. 31 warn of a situation in the future even worse than the events surrounding his crucifixion. -- Liefeld, W. L. (1984). Luke. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke (Vol. 8, p. 1042). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
23:31 This apparently is a common proverb that in essence means “if they can treat me like this when I am innocent, then what will they do to you?” “if” This is a FIRST CLASS CONDITIONAL SENTENCE, which is assumed to be true frm the author’s perspective or for his/her literary purposes. -- Utley, R. J. (2004). The Gospel according to Luke (Vol. Volume 3A, Lk 23:31). Marshall, TX: Bible Lessons International.
Verse 31 is a proverbial phrase which could be used in many connections. Here it means, if they do this to one who is innocent, what will they some day do to those who are guilty? -- Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Luke (p. 336). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.
The metaphor of the tree is a regular Hebraistic image which was employed to represent people or a nation. Here is a sample:
In the OT, the tree often represented the nation of Israel such as:
Thus, tress and large plants (including vines) are consistently used to represent people, or communities or a nation.
In Luke 23:31 we have a reference to green and dry trees. The green and dry tree is used to denote whether the tree is growing (green) or dead (dry). The verse in Luke 23:31 should not be divorced from its previous verse which has significant references to two other places:
Thus, Jesus appears to be saying in Luke 23:31 that the "tree" of Israel and its Messiah, Jesus Himself, could be so badly treated when the nation of the Jews is still functioning, what would happen later when the the nation was abandoned and dead? Ellicott reaches the same conclusion:
(31) If they do these things in a green tree.—The word for “tree” primarily meant “wood” or “timber,” the tree cut down. In later Greek, however, as, e.g., in Revelation 2:7; Revelation 22:2; Revelation 22:14; Revelation 22:19, it was used for “tree.” The “green tree” is, therefore, that which is yet living, capable of bearing fruit; the “dry,” that which is barren, fruitless, withered, fit only for the axe (Matthew 3:10; Luke 13:7). The words have so much the character of a proverb that the verb may almost be treated as practically impersonal. So far as any persons are implied, we must think of our Lord as speaking of the representatives of Roman power. If Pilate could thus sentence to death One in whom he acknowledged that he could find no fault, what might be expected from his successors when they had to deal with a people rebellious and in arms? In 1 Peter 4:17 we have the same thought in a more general and less figurative form.
Barnes is similar:
For if they do these things in a green tree ... - This seems to be a proverbial expression. A "green" tree is not easily set on fire; a dry one is easily kindled and burns rapidly; and the meaning of the passage is - "If they, the Romans, do these things to me, who am innocent and blameless; if they punish me in this manner in the face of justice, what will they not do in relation to this guilty nation? What security have they that heavier judgments will not come upon them? What desolations and woes may not be expected when injustice and oppression have taken the place of justice, and have set up a rule over this wicked people?" Our Lord alludes, evidently, to the calamities that would come upon them by the Romans in the destruction of their city and temple. The passage may be applied, however, without impropriety, and with great beauty and force, to the punishment of the wicked in the future world.