What Does Luke 1:10 Mean in the King James?
And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
At the incense hour, the multitude’s prayer outside and the offering within meet in one shared act of appeal.
THE MEANING
A whole multitude prays together while incense is being offered. Their shared words occupy the same hour as the fragrant offering, joining the people’s appeal with a visible sign of devotion. The reader meets prayer here as a shared act, not only a private one.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that prayer is only a solitary act: here, a multitude prays together.
THE ROOT
προσευχόμενον
proseuchomenon
GROWS FROM
εὔχομαι
euchomai
To pray, wish, or vow; in this compound, prayer is directed toward its addressee.
“praying” in this verse is proseuchomenon. The word family holds prayer alongside a vow or wish, giving prayer the shape of a directed appeal rather than a vague religious mood. Here, that appeal is shared by the gathered multitude.
ALSO GROWS
euchē: A prayer, wish, or vow.
εὐχή
It shows that prayer and vowed desire belong to the same word family.
proseuchē: Prayer directed toward God.
προσευχή
The related noun names the act the multitude shares in this verse.
θυμιάματος
thymiamatos
GROWS FROM
θυμιάω
thymiaō
To burn incense or make fragrant by burning.
The word keeps incense concrete: fragrance comes through something offered and burned. Its appointed hour gives the multitude’s prayer a visible counterpart.
ALSO GROWS
thymiama: Fragrant material burned as incense.
θυμίαμα
This is the noun used in the verse for the incense whose hour marks the people’s prayer.
thymiatērion: A vessel for burning incense.
θυμιατήριον
It names the vessel that carries the burning incense, making the offering tangible.
THE PATTERN
Prayer is pictured as an appeal that comes before God, with incense giving it a visible counterpart.
Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.THE THREAD
Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.Psalm makes explicit what Luke places side by side: prayer and the hour of incense. It lets the shared timing in Luke open into an image of prayer as an offering set before God.
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