What Does Luke 10:13 Mean in the King James?
Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
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
The verse separates seeing from turning: the works can reach you without changing the direction you face.
THE MEANING
Woe names the grief of seeing powerful works and remaining unturned. You can encounter what is shown and still stay in the same direction; the verse says Tyre and Sidon would have turned long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes, if those works had happened among them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that more exposure to signs must automatically produce a turn of heart.
THE ROOT
μετενόησαν
metenoēsan
GROWS FROM
μετανοέω (metanoeō; meta + noeō)
To change one’s mind or turn in thought; its second element, νοέω (noeō), means to perceive or think.
“repented” in this verse is metenoēsan. Here the verb names a turn in perception and direction. Sitting in sackcloth and ashes gives that turn a visible, grieving posture.
ALSO GROWS
metanoia: Turning; a change of mind
μετάνοια
This noun from the same word family appears in Luke 3:8, where turning is associated with its fruit.
noeō: Perceive, think, understand
νοέω
This element of the verb connects turning with a change in how one perceives.
ἐγένοντο
egénonto
GROWS FROM
γίνομαι
gínomai
To become, happen, or come about.
“had been done / which have been done” in this verse is egénonto. The Greek repeats the same verb: if the works had come about in Tyre and Sidon, the works that came about among you. That echo places the counterfactual and the actual side by side before naming their different responses.
ALSO GROWS
génesis: Origin; coming into being
γένεσις
It belongs to the same coming-to-be word family, echoing the works that came about in the verse.
génos: Kind, lineage, offspring
γένος
It shares the gen- family associated with coming into being.
δυνάμεις
dynameis
GROWS FROM
δύναμαι
dýnamai
To be able; to have power.
The Greek word behind “mighty works” belongs to the power-and-ability family. The verse contrasts where these displays of power happen with whether they awaken a turn.
ALSO GROWS
dýnamis: Power, capacity; a mighty act
δύναμις
The plural in the verse names the works as displays of power.
dynatos: Able, powerful
δυνατός
It shares the language of ability, illuminating the power carried by the works.
THE PATTERN
Signs and powerful acts do not make perception inevitable; their meaning appears in whether a person turns.
The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles: Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.THE THREAD
Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.Luke 3:8 uses μετάνοια (metanoia, turning), the noun from the same Greek word family as the verb translated “repented” here. It makes the turn visible through its fruit, opening the sackcloth-and-ashes image as a changed direction that takes form.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us