What Does Luke 10:4 Mean in the King James?
Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.
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 word for “salute” carries the warmth of welcome, so the road’s urgency includes leaving even a social embrace behind.
THE MEANING
The dispatch meets you on a road kept free of spare supplies and roadside greetings. The path calls for movement without dividing yourself between securing every possibility and lingering over each encounter.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a meaningful journey must be secured with backup provisions and filled with every customary exchange.
THE ROOT
ὁδόν
hodon
GROWS FROM
ὁδός
hodos
A road, path, or way of passage.
English can make “by the way” sound like a passing aside, but the Greek names the road itself. The same path-word can describe both a physical route and a way through life.
ALSO GROWS
exodos: A way out; a departure.
ἔξοδος
The same path-word can describe movement out, making a road more than a place to travel across.
eisodos: An entrance; a way in.
εἴσοδος
The same path-word also names arrival, holding both departure and entry within the language of a way.
ἀσπάσησθε
aspasesthe
GROWS FROM
ἀσπάζομαι
aspazomai
To greet, welcome, or embrace.
“salute” in this verse is aspasesthe. The greeting here can carry the warmth of welcome, not merely a passing acknowledgment. The command leaves that social opening aside while the traveler is on the road.
ALSO GROWS
aspasmos: A greeting or salutation.
ἀσπασμός
This noun names the greeting as an exchange in its own right, clarifying what the traveler is told not to begin along the route.
aspazomai: To greet, welcome, or embrace.
ἀσπάζομαι
The verb’s range lets “salute” hold the possibility of welcome and embrace, giving the instruction social weight.
βαστάζετε
bastazete
GROWS FROM
βαστάζω
bastazō
To lift, carry, or bear.
“Carry” in this verse is bastazete. The prohibition concerns what is physically borne on the journey. Elsewhere this word-family can name a burden itself, so the passage’s lightness begins with what the traveler carries.
ALSO GROWS
bastazō: To carry, lift, or bear.
βαστάζω
The verb names the tangible act being restricted: taking travel goods along.
bastagma: A burden or load.
βάσταγμα
The related noun names what is borne, keeping the instruction grounded in the traveler’s actual load.
THE PATTERN
A dispatched journey is kept direct by stripping away provisions and roadside exchanges.
Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child.And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece.And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse:THE THREAD
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.The exact Greek word behind “by the way” appears in Jesus’ declaration, “I am the way.” Luke’s road is a physical route; John gathers the same path-word around a person, letting the literal journey open onto the wider sense of a way through.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us