What Does Luke 10:3 Mean in the King James?

Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.

Luke 10:3 · KJV

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 sending does not make lambs into wolves; it sends them still lamb-like among them.

THE MEANING

You stand here as one sent into conditions where danger remains visible. The sending does not make the wolves harmless or change the lamb into a wolf; it holds purpose and exposure together.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie this undoes is that safety requires becoming predatory; the verse names exposure without making the lamb’s nature a failure.

THE ROOT

ἀποστέλλω

apostellō

GROWS FROM

⁨στέλλω⁩ (stellō), with ⁨ἀπό⁩ (apo-)

⁨στέλλω⁩ (stellō) means send or dispatch; ⁨ἀπό⁩ (apo-) adds the sense of sending away or outward.

“send forth” in this verse is apostellō. The word family keeps the act of sending connected to the identity of the one sent. The lambs are sent forth into danger without being remade in the wolves’ nature.

ALSO GROWS

apostolos: messenger; one sent

ἀπόστολος

The messenger’s name comes from the sending: the role is carried by going out with what has been entrusted.

apostolē: sending; commission

ἀποστολή

This names the sending itself, keeping the focus on being sent forth even when the setting is dangerous.

THE PATTERN

Being sent into danger does not require the sent one to take on the danger’s nature.

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

Isaiah 6:8 · KJVThe one who answers the call enters the sending without first knowing every condition ahead.

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Matthew 10:16 · KJVThe same image holds vulnerability beside discernment and harmlessness in the presence of danger.

As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

John 17:18 · KJVThe sending reaches into the world as it is, carrying the sender’s purpose into its conditions.

THE THREAD

And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

Luke 9:2 · KJV

The same Greek verb sends them in both verses. Here the danger surrounds a mission already named as proclamation and healing; the wolves describe its exposure, not a new purpose.

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