What Does Luke 12:18 Mean in the King James?
And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
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
He answers abundance by building a larger place to store it, as though a bigger container could secure his future.
THE MEANING
The verse catches the instant when abundance turns into a storage plan: what has come forth is gathered and named “mine,” and the answer to having enough is a larger container. The plan can organize possessions, but it cannot make the future belong to the one who stores them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that enough stored wealth can secure the life of the one who owns it.
THE ROOT
γεννήματά
gennēmata
GROWS FROM
γεννάω
gennaō
To beget or bring forth.
The Greek word names what has been brought forth, keeping the harvest’s coming into being visible beneath the English word “fruits.” He gathers these products and calls them his, turning what has come forth into stored possession.
ALSO GROWS
gennēma: Offspring; something brought forth or produced.
γέννημα
The harvest is named as what has come forth, not simply as an object sitting in a storehouse.
genea: Generation; lineage.
γενεά
It extends the same language of coming forth to what emerges in succession.
ἀποθήκας
apothēkas
GROWS FROM
τίθημι
tithēmi
To put, place, or set.
“barns” in this verse is apothēkas. The Greek word means storehouses: places for putting things away. His response to abundance is to enlarge the place where it will be held, making storage the center of his plan.
ALSO GROWS
apotithēmi: To lay aside or put away.
ἀποτίθημι
This verb shares the sense of placing something away for later, the action built into a storehouse.
thēkē: A case, container, or repository.
θήκη
It names a place or object that holds something, keeping the focus on containment.
THE PATTERN
Stored abundance can grow in size while remaining unable to secure the life that depends on it.
There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;THE THREAD
And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.Verse 15 states the hinge that verse 18 dramatizes: possessing more does not make a life more secure or complete. The larger barns give physical shape to the belief that abundance can equal life.
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