Luke 9:54 - What Happened?

Internal evidence is seldom more weighty than it is in Luke 9:54-56, where a cluster of textual variants pop up.  Today let’s zoom in on Luke 9:54.  At the end of Luke 9:54, ὡς καὶ Ὴλίας ἐποίησεν follows ἀυτούς in the Textus Receptus, the Byzantine text, A C D K Π W X Δ Θ Ψ 0211 f¹, f¹³ 33 565 892 1424 1505.  Versional support is found in several Old Latin witnesses (a, b, c [sort of], d, f, q, r¹) Gothic Peshitta Harklean Syriac Some Bohairic copies and some Vulgate copies.

Greek witnesses without ὡς καὶ Ὴλίας ἐποίησεν include P45, P75, À B L X 157 579 700 1241 1342.  Versional support for the shorter reading is supplies by Old Latin aur e l, the Vulgate, the Sinaitic Syriac and Curetonian Syriac, the Sahidic version, Armenian version, and an early strata of the Georgian version.  Patristic support for non-inclusion comes from Tatian’s Diatessaron, Jerome, and Cyril of Alexandria.      

Tertullian, in Against Marcion IV:23, focused on Luke 9:54-56 when he wrote, “The Creator, at Elijah’s demand, brings down a plague of fire upon that false prophet.  I take note of a judge’s sternness: and on the contrary of Christ’s gentleness when reproving the disciples as they call for the same punishment upon that village of the Samaritans. Let the heretic also take note that this gentleness of Christ is promised by that same stern Judge:  He shall not strive, it says, nor shall his voice be heard in the street: a bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench.  Such a one was even less likely to burn men up.  For even in reference to Elijah in his day, it says, The Lord was not in the fire but in a gentle spirit. 

It is not easy to discern from this what Tertullian’s copy of Luke read at the end of 9:54.   He clearly drew a contrast between what Jesus wanted his disciples to do and what had happened in the case of Elijah in Second Kings 1, but this is something that could be easily done without the words ὡς καὶ Ὴλίας ἐποίησεν or their Latin equivalent.  Tertullian is thus a non-witness. 

The internal evidence is decisive in this case:  there is no evident reason to remove the words if they were original.  There is a natural and simple reason to add ὡς καὶ Ὴλίας ἐποίησεν, to pinpoint the alluded-to incident.  The words were not written by Luke.