Suddenly a man in the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, for he is my only child.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, a man from the crowd called out, saying, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child.
- KJV And, behold, a man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son: for he is mine only child.
- NKJV Suddenly a man from the multitude cried out, saying, “Teacher, I implore You, look on my son, for he is my only child.
- NASB And a man from the crowd shouted, saying, “Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, because he is my only son,
- NLT A man in the crowd called out to him, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, my only child.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A man cries out, begging Jesus to look at his only son. A father's desperate plea brings a hopeless case to Christ.
Overview
The man's anguish for his only child evokes deep compassion and mirrors human helplessness before suffering. His appeal to Jesus shows where desperate need rightly turns. Luke's note that the boy is an only child heightens the pathos and recalls Jesus' tender mercy toward such cases.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Zech 12:10Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
- John 4:47When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Him to come down and heal his son, who was about to die.
- Luke 8:41–42Just then a synagogue leader named Jairus came and fell at Jesus’ feet. He begged Him to come to his house,
- Luke 7:12As He approached the town gate, He saw a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.
- Matt 15:22And a Canaanite woman from that region came to Him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is miserably possessed by a demon.”
- Gen 44:20And we answered, ‘We have an elderly father and a younger brother, the child of his old age. The boy’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 9:38 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.