“Not peace, but division”
Luke 12:51
Figure of speechSettledJesus
Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but division. (Luke 12:51 BSB)
What it sounds like today
Matthew's sword saying, defused.
The cultural key
Where Matthew has 'I have not come to bring peace, but a sword,' Luke writes 'division' (diamerismos) outright, then continues into the same Micah 7:6 picture of a household split three against two. Luke has done what a good translator does with a metaphor at risk of misreading: cashed it out. The sword was never steel; it was the line a person's allegiance to Jesus would cut through their own kin.
Recovered meaning
Luke's wording is the strongest internal evidence for reading Matthew's sword figuratively: the earliest interpreter of the saying heard 'division,' not weaponry. One saying, one meaning, two registers.
Parallels: Matthew 10:34–36; Micah 7:6