Daughter of Zion

In last Sunday’s gospel reading, we heard the story of Jesus healing a person in the synagogue described as worthy of being healed on the Sabbath because she is a “daughter of Abraham.” Jesus in effect says if the cattle can be fed on the Sabbath, he can heal a daughter of Abraham on the Sabbath. Interestingly, the Jewish people apply this appellation, “daughter of Abraham,” to the name of each woman who converts to Judaism.

At the beginning of the gospel, Elizabeth is identified as one of the “daughters of Aaron.” Finally as Jesus walked to Calvary, he tells the “daughters of Jerusalem” not to weep for him. One phrase not employed by Luke is “daughter of Zion” which does appear in Matthew 21:5 and John 12:15. Micah includes the phrase several times in the fourth chapter.

Why is it that Luke did not use “daughter of Zion” and Matthew, Mark and John did not use the phrases “daughter of Aaron,” “daughter of Abraham” or “daughter of Jerusalem”?

Copyrighted 2007

Religion

Christianity

Gospel of Luke