What Does Luke 11:49 Mean in the King James?
Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
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
Wisdom sends its messengers knowing that some will be killed and pursued: being sent does not mean being welcomed.
THE MEANING
The verse puts wisdom’s messengers within reach of human violence: they are sent, and some are killed while others are pursued. Their being sent and their being received are not the same thing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a message from wisdom will necessarily be recognized and protected dissolves here: some messengers meet killing and pursuit.
THE ROOT
ἀποστελῶ
apostelō
GROWS FROM
ἀποστέλλω
apostellō
Send out, dispatch, commission.
The verb translated “send” and the noun “apostles” belong to the same Greek word family: an apostle is a sent one. The verse links the messenger’s identity to being sent, then names the danger that meets some of those sent.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: Sent one; apostle or envoy.
ἀπόστολος
The verse names apostles immediately after the act of sending, making the shared word family visible.
apostolē: Sending, commission, or apostleship.
ἀποστολή
This branch carries the act of sending as a commission, the role that places a messenger in the world where the verse’s violence occurs.
διώξουσιν
diōxousin
GROWS FROM
διώκω
diōkō
Pursue, chase, press after.
The Greek word translated “persecute” carries the sense of pursuit: the messengers are not merely opposed from a distance but chased. Beside the sending verb, it sets the messengers’ movement outward against the pursuers’ movement after them.
ALSO GROWS
diōgmos: Pursuit; persecution.
διωγμός
This noun names the hostile pursuit that the verse says some messengers face.
diōktēs: Pursuer; persecutor.
διώκτης
The pursuer is the human agent of the chase embedded in the verb translated “persecute.”
THE PATTERN
Wisdom’s messengers are sent into the world, where some meet rejection and violence.
But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:THE THREAD
Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.Luke 10:3 uses the same sending verb as Luke 11:49. The image of lambs among wolves makes the exposure of those sent plain: the sending itself does not remove their vulnerability.
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