What Does Luke 11:46 Mean in the King James?
And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.
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 weight is not only in the burden, but in the refusal of those who impose it to touch its cost.
THE MEANING
This verse names an imbalance that still appears when an authority sets obligations for others but never shares their weight. The burden and the refusal to come near it belong together; the verse exposes both.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a demand is just simply because an authority imposes it, even when that authority refuses to share its cost.
THE ROOT
δυσβάστακτα
dysbastakta
GROWS FROM
βαστα- (basta-), from βαστάζω (bastazō)
to carry or bear
“grievous to be borne” in this verse is dysbastakta. The phrase describes the burdens as difficult to carry. Its carrying-root echoes the contrast at the heart of the verse: others are made to bear the load while its authors will not even touch it.
ALSO GROWS
bastazete: bear, carry (Galatians 6:2)
βαστάζετε
The same root appears in a call to bear one another’s burdens, turning carrying into shared participation.
bastazōn: carrying (John 19:17)
βαστάζων
The root also names carrying a physical load, keeping the image grounded in weight and contact.
φορτίζετε
phortizete
GROWS FROM
φορτ-
phort-
load, cargo, freight
“lade” in this verse is phortizete. The verb for loading and the noun for burdens belong to the same word family. The verse pictures obligations as freight placed onto people, not as weightless instruction.
ALSO GROWS
phortos: cargo, load
φόρτος
This branch makes the freight-like image of an imposed burden visible.
phortion: load, burden
φορτίον
This related noun reinforces that what people are given to carry is a load.
νομικοῖς
nomikois
GROWS FROM
νομ-
nom-
instruction, custom, established ordering
“lawyers” in this verse is nomikois. The title connects these experts with νόμος (nomos), meaning instruction or custom. The verse exposes the danger when authority over instruction turns it into weight for others while staying untouched by that weight.
ALSO GROWS
nomos: instruction, custom
νόμος
This is the word family behind the title and links the verse’s authorities to instruction.
nomizō: regard as customary, consider
νομίζω
This related form shows the family’s connection to what is treated as established practice.
THE PATTERN
Authority reveals its character in whether it leaves weight on others or enters the work of carrying it.
Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.THE THREAD
Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.The difficult-to-bear word in Luke contains the same βαστα- (basta-, carry or bear) root as “Bear” here. Luke exposes a load whose authors will not touch it; Galatians shows carrying as something shared.
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