Luke Chapter 23 verse 31 Holy Bible
For if they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
read chapter 23 in ASV
For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will they do when it is dry?
read chapter 23 in BBE
for if these things are done in the green tree, what shall take place in the dry?
read chapter 23 in DARBY
For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
read chapter 23 in KJV
read chapter 23 in WBT
For if they do these things in the green tree, what will be done in the dry?"
read chapter 23 in WEB
for, if in the green tree they do these things -- in the dry what may happen?'
read chapter 23 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 31. - For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? Bleek and others interpret this saying here thus: The green wood represents Jesus condemned to crucifixion as a traitor in spite of his unvarying loyalty to Rome and all lawful Gentile power. The dry wood pictures the Jews, who, ever disloyal to Rome and all Genesis the authority, will bring on themselves with much stronger reason the terrible vengeance of the great conquering empire. Theophylact, however, better explains the saying in his paraphrase, "If they do these things in me, fruitful, always green, undying through the Divinity, what will they do to you, fruitless, and deprived of all life-giving righteousness?" So Farrar, who well summarizes, "If they act thus to me, the Innocent and the Holy, what shall be the fate of these, the guilty and false?"
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(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 1Peter 4:17 we have the same thought in a more general and less figurative form. . . .
