What Does Luke 11:12 Mean in the King James?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
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 thing placed into the child’s hands reveals whether the giver’s answer carries care or danger.
THE MEANING
An egg can nourish, while a scorpion can wound: the child’s request makes the difference plain. A caring father does not turn that need into a threat. The next verse extends this image to your heavenly Father and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the fear that the one you depend on will disguise harm as an answer to your need.
THE ROOT
ἐπιδώσει
epidōsei
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give, grant, or put into someone’s hands.
The Greek verb translated “offer” is built on δίδωμι, “to give.” The same act of giving can place nourishment or danger in someone’s hands, so the verse makes the giver’s care visible through what is given.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: To hand over, entrust, or deliver.
παραδίδωμι
It shows the root’s sense of placing something into another’s hands, the action at the heart of the egg-or-scorpion question.
apodidōmi: To give back, render, or repay.
ἀποδίδωμι
It shows that giving can answer a prior claim; here the father’s response answers the child’s request.
THE PATTERN
Trustworthy giving answers need with what sustains rather than with what wounds.
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?THE THREAD
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?The word translated “offer” here and “give” in the next verse share the root δίδωμι, “to give.” The contrast resolves in the next verse: the Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask.
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