Read the passage and its setting
Luke 15:1–15:7, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Luke 15:1–15:7
A Shepherd Seeks One Lost Sheep
The Main Point
Tax collectors and sinners draw near, critics object to Jesus' welcome, and a shepherd leaves ninety-nine in a wilderness to seek one sheep and celebrate its recovery, picturing joy over repentance.
What Is Happening Here?
Tax collectors and sinners draw near, critics object to Jesus' welcome, and a shepherd leaves ninety-nine in a wilderness to seek one sheep and celebrate its recovery, picturing joy over repentance. Its form is gospel_narrative and parable_or_example_story within Luke's first-volume Gospel narrative.
What Came Before—and What Comes Next?
Luke 14:25–14:35 established the preceding movement: Jesus tells crowds that allegiance may relativize family and life, requires carrying the cross, and resembles calculating a tower or war before beginning; renunciation and useful salt close the warning.
Luke 15:8–15:10 continues Luke's narrative with this movement: A woman lights a lamp, sweeps carefully, finds one of ten lost coins, and summons neighbors to joy, picturing angelic joy over one sinner who repents.
Follow Luke's Narrative Movement
See why this section appears here and how the author's narrative movement leads to its meaning.
Why Is This Passage Here?
Luke places this unit after Luke 14:25–14:35 so the reader carries the prior scene into this development: Tax collectors and sinners draw near, critics object to Jesus' welcome, and a shepherd leaves ninety-nine in a wilderness to seek one sheep and celebrate its recovery, picturing joy over repentance.
Follow the Scene or Teaching
Identify the actors, setting, and initiating speech or action in Luke 15:1–15:7.
Tax collectors and sinners draw near, critics object to Jesus' welcome, and a shepherd leaves ninety-nine in a wilderness to seek one sheep and celebrate its recovery, picturing joy over repentance.
Hold this material interpretive limit in view: The parable answers a table-fellowship complaint and uses risky shepherd imagery; it is not a literal safeguarding plan or proof that the ninety-nine have no needs.
What Is the Author Saying?
Why This Interpretation Fits
What the scene or teaching communicates
Tax collectors and sinners draw near, critics object to Jesus' welcome, and a shepherd leaves ninety-nine in a wilderness to seek one sheep and celebrate its recovery, picturing joy over repentance.
What remains disputed or limited
The parable answers a table-fellowship complaint and uses risky shepherd imagery; it is not a literal safeguarding plan or proof that the ninety-nine have no needs.
What responsible use must refuse
The parable does not authorize neglect of a group, invasive pursuit, labeling people as animals, or treating Pharisees and scribes as anti-mercy Jews.
Understand the Meaning and Its Boundaries
Clarify the words that matter and keep the conclusion no broader than the passage allows.
Words That Matter
lose / destroy
ἀπόλλυμι · apollymi
lose / destroy
What the Passage Is Not Saying
Reading Luke 15:1–15:7 inside Luke-Acts, its Jewish and Roman world, and its complete thought unit rules out this use:
The parable does not authorize neglect of a group, invasive pursuit, labeling people as animals, or treating Pharisees and scribes as anti-mercy Jews.
Context check: Tax collectors and sinners draw near, critics object to Jesus' welcome, and a shepherd leaves ninety-nine in a wilderness to seek one sheep and celebrate its recovery, picturing joy over repentance. The parable answers a table-fellowship complaint and uses risky shepherd imagery; it is not a literal safeguarding plan or proof that the ninety-nine have no needs.
What Remains True Today
Faithful reading keeps Jesus' good news, mercy, justice, prayer, Spirit, cross-shaped service, and resurrection hope joined to the complete context and to protection of people with less power. The parable does not authorize neglect of a group, invasive pursuit, labeling people as animals, or treating Pharisees and scribes as anti-mercy Jews.
Respond and Remember
Let the meaning shape life carefully, then practice explaining the section in context.
How This Should Shape Us
Why these applications follow
Tax collectors and sinners draw near, critics object to Jesus' welcome, and a shepherd leaves ninety-nine in a wilderness to seek one sheep and celebrate its recovery, picturing joy over repentance.
Tax collectors and sinners draw near, critics object to Jesus' welcome, and a shepherd leaves ninety-nine in a wilderness to seek one sheep and celebrate its recovery, picturing joy over repentance. The parable answers a table-fellowship complaint and uses risky shepherd imagery; it is not a literal safeguarding plan or proof that the ninety-nine have no needs.
Faithful reading keeps Jesus' good news, mercy, justice, prayer, Spirit, cross-shaped service, and resurrection hope joined to the complete context and to protection of people with less power. The parable does not authorize neglect of a group, invasive pursuit, labeling people as animals, or treating Pharisees and scribes as anti-mercy Jews.
What accountable response follows?
When Luke 15:1–15:7 is used now, first name its actors, first-century Jewish and Roman setting, literary role, and stated uncertainty; then trace this contextual meaning—Tax collectors and sinners draw near, critics object to Jesus' welcome, and a shepherd leaves ninety-nine in a wilderness to seek one sheep and celebrate its recovery, picturing joy over repentance.—into an accountable action that protects affected people and obeys this boundary: The parable does not authorize neglect of a group, invasive pursuit, labeling people as animals, or treating Pharisees and scribes as anti-mercy Jews.
A Concrete Example
When Luke 15:1–15:7 is cited in teaching, name the speaker, people affected, Jewish and Roman horizon, and uncertainty before proposing an analogy; then test the proposed action against this boundary: The parable does not authorize neglect of a group, invasive pursuit, labeling people as animals, or treating Pharisees and scribes as anti-mercy Jews.
Teach It Back
Explain Luke 15:1–15:7 in your own words. Name the unit's movement, its place after Luke 14:25–14:35, one source-controlled uncertainty, one affected person or group, and one conclusion the passage does not authorize.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Go Deeper
The main explanation above stands on its own. Open these optional sections for fuller language, history, disagreements, and source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
What the scene or teaching communicates
Tax collectors and sinners draw near, critics object to Jesus' welcome, and a shepherd leaves ninety-nine in a wilderness to seek one sheep and celebrate its recovery, picturing joy over repentance.
What remains disputed or limited
The parable answers a table-fellowship complaint and uses risky shepherd imagery; it is not a literal safeguarding plan or proof that the ninety-nine have no needs.
What responsible use must refuse
The parable does not authorize neglect of a group, invasive pursuit, labeling people as animals, or treating Pharisees and scribes as anti-mercy Jews.
Original-language wording and grammarTechnical detail appears only where it helps
lose / destroy
Luke 15 uses this word or idea in a local form that the SBLGNT and STEP records clarify; the complete sentence and narrative select the responsible sense.
How certain? probableWhat the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Recoverable setting and its limits
The parable answers a table-fellowship complaint and uses risky shepherd imagery; it is not a literal safeguarding plan or proof that the ninety-nine have no needs. Historical reconstruction is used only where it changes how the first hearers could understand the unit, and uncertainty remains visible.
How certain? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
Pinned KJV and Greek control for Luke 15:1–15:7
The pinned KJV remains the displayed text. SBLGNT, STEP morphology, and the NET notes were checked at Luke 15:1–15:7; older English and a material alternative are explained only to the degree they change understanding. The parable answers a table-fellowship complaint and uses risky shepherd imagery; it is not a literal safeguarding plan or proof that the ninety-nine have no needs.
How certain? probableEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Israel's Scriptures and Jewish life
Luke 15:1–15:7 belongs inside Israel's covenant story, Scripture, prayer, temple, synagogue, Sabbath, Passover, purity, poverty care, prophetic hope, and intra-Jewish debate as locally relevant. Christian interpretation must preserve that first horizon and reject antisemitic or supersessionist caricature.
How certain? strongHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Synoptic relationships and Luke-Acts
Luke's own wording, sequence, and first-volume purpose control Luke 15:1–15:7. Markan priority is widely supported, while Two-Source, Farrer, Matthean-priority, and other models remain disputed; Synoptic parallels and Acts illuminate literary relationships but may not overwrite this unit.
How certain? strongTextual variantsManuscript differences only when they affect meaning
The inspected SBLGNT and verse-attached NET notes do not expose a variant that changes Luke 15:1–15:7's central movement; no technical filler is added.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Which judgment needs visible uncertainty?
Best judgment: The parable answers a table-fellowship complaint and uses risky shepherd imagery; it is not a literal safeguarding plan or proof that the ninety-nine have no needs.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
Luke presents God's faithfulness to Israel's promises through Jesus, the Holy Ghost, prayer, mercy, reversal, embodied restoration, costly discipleship, the cross, resurrection, and witness in this movement: Tax collectors and sinners draw near, critics object to Jesus' welcome, and a shepherd leaves ninety-nine in a wilderness to seek one sheep and celebrate its recovery, picturing joy over repentance.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
The theological claim remains bounded by the unit's genre, speaker, first audience, affected people, and uncertainty; it cannot authorize the misuse explicitly rejected here.
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
The parable does not authorize neglect of a group, invasive pursuit, labeling people as animals, or treating Pharisees and scribes as anti-mercy Jews.
A memorable line in Luke 15:1–15:7 can be detached from Luke's narrator, speaker, Jewish setting, Roman power, Synoptic relationship, affected people, and later Luke-Acts controls.
Tax collectors and sinners draw near, critics object to Jesus' welcome, and a shepherd leaves ninety-nine in a wilderness to seek one sheep and celebrate its recovery, picturing joy over repentance. The material uncertainty is: The parable answers a table-fellowship complaint and uses risky shepherd imagery; it is not a literal safeguarding plan or proof that the ninety-nine have no needs.
Read Luke 15:1–15:7 as the complete unit, distinguish description, dialogue, authorial judgment, theology, and analogy, and preserve the explicit negative before applying it.
Tax collectors and sinners draw near, critics object to Jesus' welcome, and a shepherd leaves ninety-nine in a wilderness to seek one sheep and celebrate its recovery, picturing joy over repentance.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and coverage.
Luke 15:1–15:7, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Greek wording and sentence relations; the edition is not treated as a complete apparatus.
Faithlife SBLGNT official repository, data/sblgnt/text/Luke.txt, 15:1–15:7
Supports: Greek forms, morphology, and lexical ranges only where the unit discusses them; local syntax controls sense.
STEP Bible Data official repository, TAGNT Matthew-Acts rows for Luke 15:1–15:7
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, KJV-language clarification, historical notes, Synoptic parallels, and textual alternatives.
NET Bible First Edition Luke PDF, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to Luke 15:1–15:7
Supports: Critical orientation to the unit's place in Luke-Acts, narrative structure, sources, social questions, Passion, or resurrection.
Yale Bible Study Gospel of Luke course, Lost and Found study guide, Luke 15:1-19:27; applied to Luke 15:1–15:7
Supports: Current reader-oriented synthesis of anonymity, date, Jewish setting, salvation, marginalized people, parables, wealth, and whole-book movement.
Enter the Bible Luke course, Summary, Outline, Background, Introductory Issues, Theological Themes, Bible in the World, and linked passage index; applied to Luke 15:1–15:7
Supports: One complete confessional reading of the unit, independently checked against critical, textual, and ethical controls.
Bolt, “Luke,” commentary heading and paragraphs explicitly covering Luke 15:1–15:7
Supports: Literary relationship evidence and material alternatives among Luke, Mark, and Matthew without treating dependence as a historicity verdict.
Goodacre, The Synoptic Problem, chapters 1-5 on Synoptic data and Markan priority and chapters 6-10 on Q and Farrer alternatives; applied to Luke 15:1–15:7
Supports: Abstract-supported control against simple anti-Jewish or replacement summaries; not a settlement of every scene.
Smith, JTS 72.2 (2021), official abstract and bibliographic range pp. 738-765; applied only to Jewish continuity and Gentile-inclusion framing in Luke 15:1–15:7
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and coverage.
Exact location: Luke 15:1–15:7, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording and sentence relations; the edition is not treated as a complete apparatus.
Exact location: Faithlife SBLGNT official repository, data/sblgnt/text/Luke.txt, 15:1–15:7
Open the Luke Greek text file ↗Lexical and grammatical evidence
STEP Bible Data
Tyndale House Cambridge
Tyndale House Cambridge, repository snapshot verified 2026
Supports: Greek forms, morphology, and lexical ranges only where the unit discusses them; local syntax controls sense.
Exact location: STEP Bible Data official repository, TAGNT Matthew-Acts rows for Luke 15:1–15:7
Open source ↗open translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Luke
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, KJV-language clarification, historical notes, Synoptic parallels, and textual alternatives.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Luke PDF, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to Luke 15:1–15:7
Open source ↗open university bible study course
The Gospel of Luke Course and Study Guides
Yale Divinity School faculty
Yale Bible Study, 2020; current online edition
Supports: Critical orientation to the unit's place in Luke-Acts, narrative structure, sources, social questions, Passion, or resurrection.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study Gospel of Luke course, Lost and Found study guide, Luke 15:1-19:27; applied to Luke 15:1–15:7
Open source ↗modern scholarly book introduction
Luke: Summary, Outline, Background, Introductory Issues, Theological Themes, and Bible in the World
Matthew L. Skinner
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, 2024 revision; current course inspected 2026
Supports: Current reader-oriented synthesis of anonymity, date, Jewish setting, salvation, marginalized people, parables, wealth, and whole-book movement.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Luke course, Summary, Outline, Background, Introductory Issues, Theological Themes, Bible in the World, and linked passage index; applied to Luke 15:1–15:7
Open source ↗open confessional commentary
Luke
Peter G. Bolt
The Gospel Coalition Bible Commentary, 2023
Supports: One complete confessional reading of the unit, independently checked against critical, textual, and ethical controls.
Exact location: Bolt, “Luke,” commentary heading and paragraphs explicitly covering Luke 15:1–15:7
Open source ↗modern scholarly open monograph
The Synoptic Problem: A Way Through the Maze
Mark Goodacre
T&T Clark; open access supplied by the author and Duke University, 2001; open release 2011
Supports: Literary relationship evidence and material alternatives among Luke, Mark, and Matthew without treating dependence as a historicity verdict.
Exact location: Goodacre, The Synoptic Problem, chapters 1-5 on Synoptic data and Markan priority and chapters 6-10 on Q and Farrer alternatives; applied to Luke 15:1–15:7
Open source ↗peer reviewed article abstract and metadata
The Jewishness of Luke-Acts: How Recent Scholarship Has Challenged the View that Luke-Acts Is Pro-Gentile and Anti-Jewish
Joshua Paul Smith
The Journal of Theological Studies 72.2, 2021
Supports: Abstract-supported control against simple anti-Jewish or replacement summaries; not a settlement of every scene.
Exact location: Smith, JTS 72.2 (2021), official abstract and bibliographic range pp. 738-765; applied only to Jewish continuity and Gentile-inclusion framing in Luke 15:1–15:7
Open source ↗