“As lambs in the midst of wolves”
Luke 10:3
Figure of speechSettledJesus
Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. (Luke 10:3 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A nice balance of cleverness and niceness.
The cultural key
Each animal was proverbial: the serpent for shrewd self-preservation since Eden ('more crafty than any other beast,' Genesis 3:1), the dove for purity and guilelessness, the only bird fit for sacrifice, and Israel's own emblem in rabbinic imagery. The setup line is the shock: sheep sent into the wolves, prey deliberately dispatched among predators. Luke's word is lambs, not sheep, and he drops the serpents-and-doves counsel: the sent ones are younger, more defenseless, and given no survival proverb, only the sending.
Recovered meaning
Under persecution, be street-smart without becoming what hunts you: all of the serpent's savvy, none of its venom; all of the dove's innocence, none of its naivety.
Parallels: Matthew 10:16