What Does Luke 10:38 Mean in the King James?
Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
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
Here, receiving means letting a presence cross the threshold of the space you hold.
THE MEANING
Martha’s name, Μάρθα (Martha, “lady” or “mistress”), is paired with a concrete welcome: she receives him inside her house. The Greek ὑποδέχομαι (hypodechomai, “welcome as a guest”) presents receiving as an arrival into the space she holds. The verse speaks of welcome as something a home can embody.
THE ROOT
ὑπεδέξατο
hypedexato
GROWS FROM
δεχ
dech
The Greek verb stem for receiving or welcoming.
English “received” can sound like a passing greeting. The compound verb names welcoming someone as a guest, evoking the act of taking them under one’s roof or care; here welcome becomes shelter and shared space.
ALSO GROWS
dechomai: receive, welcome
δέχομαι
This is the core verb inside the compound: the act of taking someone in.
apodechomai: welcome, accept, receive favorably
ἀποδέχομαι
This related form carries the same receiving core into open acceptance.
οἶκον
oikon
GROWS FROM
οἰκ
oik
Dwelling; the home and household gathered around it.
“house” in this verse is oikon. The οἰκ- family names both a dwelling and the household within it. Martha’s welcome takes place in that lived sphere: receiving him means opening her home.
ALSO GROWS
oikia: house, home, household
οἰκία
This branch makes clear that the word can point to a dwelling and the people who belong to it.
oikodespotēs: master of a house, householder
οἰκοδεσπότης
This branch links the house to the person who holds and orders its space.
THE PATTERN
Welcome takes shape when someone is received into the space another person opens.
Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.THE THREAD
And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.Luke uses the same verb, ὑποδέχομαι (hypodechomai, “welcome as a guest”), for Zacchaeus receiving Jesus. In both scenes, welcome is an arrival into someone’s lived space.
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