Luke 18

Luke 18 is the eighteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the teachings and a miracle of Jesus Christ. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke the Evangelist composed this Gospel as well as the Acts of the Apostles.

The original text was written in Koine Greek. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:

This chapter is divided into 43 verses.

This parable appears only in the Gospel of Luke, and is also known as the Parable of the Unjust Judge and the Parable of the Importunate Widow. Luke's introductory wording (verse 1) states that the parable is intended to show Jesus' disciples "that they should always pray and not give up" or "not lose heart". The King James Version enjoins the disciples "not to faint". It tells of a judge who "did not fear God and did not respect man", who is repeatedly approached by a poor widow who is seeking justice. Initially rejecting her demands, he eventually honors her request to avoid being worn out by her persistence. This parable is found immediately prior to the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (also on prayer) and is similar to the parable of the Friend at Night, recorded in Luke 11.

Methodist commentator Joseph Benson notes that the separation of chapter 18 from chapter 17 "improperly interrupts" Jesus' discourse regarding the "coming of the kingdom", arguing that the forthcoming persecution "would render the duties of prayer, patience, and perseverance peculiarly seasonable". Anglican churchman Henry Alford argues that while it is "not perhaps spoken in immediate unbroken sequence after the last discourse", it probably "arose out of it: perhaps [it] was the fruit of a conversation with the disciples about the day of His coming and the mind with which they must expect it". In Alford's reading of the parable, "in its direct application it is ecclesiastical, and not individual, but by a legitimate accommodation: the widow is the Church, [and] the judge [is] her God and Father in heaven.

In modern translations, the widow's request is for "justice". Traditionally her plea for εκδικησον με (endikeson me) has been translated as "avenge me". The Revised Standard Version sees her requesting "vindication". Benson states that "the word properly signifies 'to judge a cause', and defend the injured judicially from the injurious person. The English word avenge, therefore, does not exactly hit the sense here intended, although, as Dr. Campbell observes, in the application of the parable, Luke 18:7: And shall not God avenge his own elect?, "it answers better than any other term".

Alford adds that the persistence intended by the story refers to the believer's "earnest desire of the heart ..., rather than, though of course including, the outward act" of prayer.

In the New Testament, the Pharisees often display a punctilious adherence to Jewish Law. Verna Holyhead notes that Luke's "audience" for this parable included not only the Pharisees but others "who trusted in themselves". United Methodist theologian Joel B. Green explains that the Pharisee depicted in this parable went beyond his fellows, fasting more often than was required, and giving a tithe on all he receives, even in cases where the religious rules did not require it. Confident in his religiosity, the Pharisee asks God for nothing, and thus receives nothing. He gives thanks not because he is good but because (in his own opinion) he is the only one who is good.