✨WEB · Luke 15:11
What does Luke 15:11 mean?
"He said, “A certain man had two sons."
— Luke 15:11 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Or what woman, if she had ten drachma coins, if she lost one drachma coin, wouldn’t light a lamp, sweep the house, and seek diligently until she found it?
When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost.’
Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting.”
He said, “A certain man had two sons.
The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them.
Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.
When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.
Explanation
Luke 15:11 is a brief opening line, but it serves as the doorway into one of the most beloved and theologically rich parables Jesus ever told—commonly known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son, though it might be better called the Parable of the Two Sons or the Parable of the Loving Father. In plain language, the verse simply introduces the characters: a father and his two sons, setting the stage for a story about family, loss, repentance, and grace that Jesus is about to unfold.
To understand this verse, we need to see it in its immediate context. Luke chapter 15 opens with tax collectors and sinners gathering to hear Jesus, while the Pharisees and scribes grumble that Jesus welcomes and eats with sinners. In response, Jesus tells three parables in a row: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and then this story of the two sons. Luke, writing his Gospel to a broader Gentile audience (traditionally addressed to Theophilus), carefully preserves this sequence to show how Jesus responds to religious criticism—not with an argument, but with stories that reveal the heart of God toward the lost.
Though verse 11 itself contains no direct theological statement, its placement is significant. By introducing "a certain man" who "had two sons," Jesus sets up a narrative that will contrast two different responses to the father's love
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