Luke 4 · a question people ask

They led him to the brow of the hill to throw him off the cliff (4:29). How did he get away?

In the text

Luke doesn't say how. "They rose up, threw him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that their city was built on, that they might throw him off the cliff" (4:29). The next verse is all Luke tells: "But he, passing through the middle of them, went his way" (4:30). Luke doesn't say whether anyone tried to stop him, and gives no word for what happened beyond "passing through the middle of them". These notes don't add one. The next verse goes on, "He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee" (4:31).

The verses

“They rose up, threw him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that their city was built on, that they might throw him off the cliff. But he, passing through the middle of them, went his way. He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. He was teaching them on the Sabbath day,”
Luke 4:29-31 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Luke 4

Luke 4: Today, in your hearing

In Luke 4 the reading in Nazareth has "the acceptable year of the Lord" (4:19), and then Jesus says "no prophet is acceptable in his hometown" (4:24): the same Greek word, the only two times Luke uses it. And at the end of the chapter he says, "For this reason I have been sent" (4:43), with the verb of the reading's "He has sent me" (4:18).

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Last reviewed October 1, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions